Tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside Delhi in protest since last week.
New Delhi:
Farmers protesting on the outskirts of Delhi against the center’s new agricultural laws should be removed because they are blocking emergency medical services needed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, a petition in the Supreme Court stated on Friday.
Submitted by a Delhi resident, Rishab Sharma, a law student, the statement called for the immediate removal or relocation of the protesting farmers, saying that despite being offered land by police in Burari, on the northern outskirts of the city, demonstrations still take place on the borders.
The petition cites the Supreme Court’s ruling on protests against the center’s controversial citizenship law, which in October said public places cannot be occupied by protesters and there must be a specific place for demonstrations.
“The lives of thousands of thousands protesting on the Delhi borders are in immediate danger as the virus is highly contagious and if by chance this coronavirus disease takes the form of community spread, it will wreak havoc in the country,” said.
Farmers faced brutal police crackdown in Haryana last week before they were allowed to hold a peaceful protest in Delhi against new laws that they say will leave them at the mercy of large corporations and overturn safeguards against deception. .
Union ministers have been holding talks with farmer leaders to try to break the deadlock in laws passed earlier this year that seek to deregulate the agriculture sector that has sparked the country’s largest agricultural protests in years.
Tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside Delhi in protest against laws that seek to rid the sector of outdated procurement procedures and allow farmers to sell to institutional buyers and large international retailers.
Farmers, who form a powerful political electorate, fear that laws passed in September could pave the way for the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers.
Farming groups say the government is trying to end a decades-long policy of providing them with a guaranteed minimum price to produce staples like wheat and rice.
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