CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: In a looming confrontation reminiscent of 2020-21, farmers have started heading towards the national capital from villages of Punjab on their tractor-trolleys, loaded with dry rations, water-proof sheets, and mattresses. The Delhi Police on Monday enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 in the entire city, completely securing the city’s borders.
A team of Union ministers camping in Chandigarh on Monday was locked in protracted discussions with farmer leaders in an attempt to dissuade them from their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march to press the Centre to enact a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops. The meeting, however, remained inconclusive with a farmer leader saying that they will go ahead with the protest.
In the meeting, the Centre is learnt to have agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers registered during the 2020-21 agitation, sources said. However, farmer leaders were adamant on a legal guarantee to MSP for crops, which is one of their key demands.
The ministers—Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda—held a second round of talks with the farmer leaders. The first meeting was held on February 8.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, among others, were part of the meeting. The farmers have announced that more than 200 unions would march to Delhi.
After the meeting that ended just before midnight, Pandher said that the farmers would go ahead with the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on Tuesday.
In Delhi, Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora issued strict orders valid for the next 30 days to maintain law and order in the city in the wake of farmers’ proposed agitation.
The Commissioner, in an official order, said that there is an imminent risk of widespread tension, public nuisance, public annoyance, social unrest and the potential for violence on account of the participants of the march (farmers).
The Haryana and UT Chandigarh governments too have imposed Section 144, banning demonstrations or tractor-trolley marches. However, agitating farmers are using alternate village routes to reach Delhi.