NEW DELHI: As farmers from neighbouring states are expected to enter the national capital on February 13 following their proposed ‘Delhi Chalo March’, the police have strengthened security arrangements across all border areas and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in northeast Delhi.
Several farmers associations, mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, have called for a protest on Tuesday to demand a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP), which they said was the condition to end their agitation in 2021.
The security forces are on high alert over concerns that the protest could create chaos and may turn violent. They have erected multi-layered barricades, fixed iron nails on roads, and installed barbed wires and iron rods between cemented barriers at different sites along Punjab-Haryana, Delhi-Haryana, and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders.
“Information has been received that some farmer organisations have given a call to their supporters to march to Delhi on February 13 for their demands for a law on MSP. They are likely to sit at the border of Delhi till their demands are met,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said in an official order.
He said that given the “kind of behaviour and adamant approach” farmers have shown during the protests in the past, there is a possibility of mobilisation, activities of farmers, supporters from their respective districts to Delhi along with tractor, trolleys, and even weapons.