CHANDIGARH: Battle lines were drawn along the Punjab-Haryana border with farmers bringing in heavy machinery, including hydraulic cranes and earth movers, to break the police barricades as they resume their Dilli Chalo march on Wednesday, a day after they rejected a formula floated by the Centre.
In a new twist later in the day, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said tractor trolleys cannot run on highways as per the Motor Vehicles Act.
It advised farmers to use buses or public transport to go to Delhi instead. A bench of Acting Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji also orally directed the Punjab government to ensure that farmers do not gather in large numbers.
The Centre has estimated that nearly 14,000 people have gathered along the Punjab-Haryana border with 1,200 tractor-trolleys, 300 cars, 10 mini-buses as well as small vehicles and conveyed its strong objections to the Punjab government for it, sources said on Tuesday. Similarly, Punjab has allowed a gathering of around 4,500 people with close to 500 tractor-trolleys at the Dhabi-Gujran barrier, it claimed.
Meanwhile, briefing the media on the talks with the Centre, farmer leaders said they had suggested a special session of Parliament to pass a legislation on legal guarantees to the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism for crops.
Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said: “We have three major demands: legal guarantee on MSP for all crops; the implementation of the C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission; and loan waiver.’’
He said as per government reports, farmers have a total debt of Rs 18.5 lakh crore.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi could make a pre-poll announcement that all farm loans would be waived; a mechanism to do so could be worked out later,” he suggested.
At the Shambhu inter-state border, sources said the number of agitators is swelling. There is heavy police deployment in and around Rajpura to manage traffic movement as hundreds of tractor trolleys are rolling towards Shambhu.
Food for thought
1. Proposal: Farmers demand guaranteed MSP for all 23 crops; implementation of C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan panel; and loan waiver estimated at Rs 18.5 lakh cr
2. Counter-proposal: Govt offers MSP guarantee on 5 crops - tur, urad, masoor, cotton and maize - for five years. Farmers reject it
3. Cost of guaranteed MSP to all crops: Govt will get in only when mandi price is below MSP. So, real cost to govt will be MSP minus mandi price, which is about Rs 21,000 crore for marketing year 2023, as per CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics
4. Expert take: Govt proposal is a diversionary tactic to buy time, says Devinder Sharma. If govt can waive off Rs 15,000 lakh crore of corporate loans, why can’t it do so for farmers, he asks
Both BJP & Akalis blame it on Mann
Both the Punjab unit of the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal blamed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for breakdown of talks. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, “since Mann acted as the lawyer for farmers during the talks, the negotiations were destined to fail.” Senior SAD leader Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said Mann’s double-speak during negotiations failed the farming community and forced them on the path of agitation