Police Use Tear Gas To Disperse Farmers At Sambhu Border, Here’s What Agri Min Said In Parl

New Delhi: Police used tear gas to disperse protesting farmers at the Haryana-Punjab Shambhu Border. Raising several demands, a ‘jatha’ (group) of farmers from Punjab, under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, attempted to march from the Shambhu border to Parliament in Delhi on Friday (December 6).

They are demanding a legal guarantee for the minimum support price for crops, no hikes in electricity tariffs, a debt waiver, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, and justice for the victims of violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2021 and during the farmers’ protests in 2020-21.
The farmers started their procession by foot around 1 pm from the Shambhu border. But they were stopped by police at the border.

“We have called off ‘Jattha’ and not the march (to Delhi). 6 farmers have been injured…,” farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told the ANI.

Ahead of the march, security was strengthened at the border in Haryana’s Ambala district. Additional security had been put in place. Section 163 of the BNS, which prohibits the unlawful assembly of groups of four or more people, had also been imposed.

If permission is not granted to cross the border, there may be confrontations as it had been previously when similar protests were stopped on February 13 and 21.

Police claimed that the farmers did not obtain prior approval before the protest. But the farmers claimed that they had informed the concerned authorities ahead of time.

At the Khanauri border, one of the leaders of the farmers’ protest, Jagjit Singh Dallewal has been sitting on a fast-unto-death for the last 10 days.

This will be the third such attempt by the protesting farmer unions to march to New Delhi in the past 10 months.

A few days back, Uttar Pradesh farmers, who had been protesting for over 10 days in Gautam Buddha Nagar against government land acquisitions between 1997 and 2008, withdrew protest after they were assured by the authorities of looking into their demands.

‘Modi govt will buy all farm produce at MSP’

Even as the farmers were protesting, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in the Parliament that the Narendra Modi government would purchase all farm produce at minimum support price.

“When our friends from the other side were in power, they had stated on record that they cannot accept the M S Swaminathan Commission recommendations, especially on giving 50 per cent more than the cost of produce. I have the record,” he added.

After such remarks, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked the minister to put on record the documents to substantiate his claim. Chouhan agreed to the same.