Bracing overnight rains and chilly winds, thousands of protesting farmers on Thursday assembled at various places along the Haryana borders in Punjab amid mounting tension.
They have been stopped by the Haryana Police while heading towards the national capital for their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest against the three Central farm laws.
A huge contingent of police comprising the Rapid Action Force has been deployed to deal with any untoward situation. They tried to evict farmers gathered since Wednesday evening.
Residents of several towns located along the Punjab-Haryana borders faced a harrowing time due to the heavy deployment of the security forces and snapping of the bus services in the past 24 hours.
Farmers have swarmed roads and other open spaces. Several link roads entering Haryana have also been barricaded.
Unfazed by the heavy security deployment and barricading the highway with mounds of earth and huge rocks, a protesting farmer Gurdev Singh told the media at the Shambhu border near Ambala city, “We will break all the barricades if we were not allowed to move ahead.”
Farmers said they were ready to face even the bullets.
Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed and the entire borders have been turned into a fortress.
A day earlier, farmers had major scuffles with the Haryana Police which failed to stop them from proceeding further despite heavy deployment of men and use of water cannons.
The major scuffle between the farmers and the police broke out at the Shambhu border on the national highway when the farmers broke the blockades and managed to proceed to Delhi for staging a demonstration.
Despite the use of water cannons, the protesting farmers, comprising men and women — both young and old — and school and college students riding tractor-trailers, cars and motorcycles, managed to enter Haryana from Punjab.
They were later joined by thousands of their counterparts from Haryana, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) state chief Gurnam Singh Charuni.
As they reached Kurukshetra district, the local farmers joined them.
“The police must release our activists and vehicles. We will march towards Delhi, breaking the barricades,” Charuni said.
The police had taken nearly 100 farmer leaders from Haryana into “preventive custody”.
As per the police estimates, around 3,00,000 farmers from both the states are set to reach Delhi as part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation.
The farmers affiliated to 33 organisations are part of the United Farmers Front, an all-India body of over 470 farmers’ unions that will participate in the indefinite protest in the national capital from November 26.
The protesting farmers have threatened to block all the roads leading to Delhi if they are denied the permission to travel towards the national capital.
Barred from entering Haryana, the leaders of farmers’ organisations announced that they will sit on ‘dharna’ at the Dabwali barrier between Bathinda and Sirsa districts for a week.
BKU (Ugrahan) President Joginder Ugrahan said, “If we are not allowed to cross Haryana and head towards Delhi on Thursday, our protest destination will be the border points for a week.”
The Delhi Police has already asked the farmers not to enter Delhi as they don’t have permission to protest in the city.
The Haryana Police too have issued a travel advisory, asking commuters to avoid certain national highways along the state borders with Punjab and Delhi in the wake of the protests.
The main focus points of the protesters originating from within Haryana will be the four major national highways leading towards Delhi, i.e., Ambala to Delhi, Hisar to Delhi, Rewari to Delhi and Palwal to Delhi.
Farmers protesting against the farm laws have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the ‘mercy’ of big corporate entities.
With protesting farmers from Punjab assembling at the Delhi-Haryana borders on Thursday morning, the police in the national capital stepped up security and put barricades at several places. The police said they have denied the requests from the farmers’ groups to hold protests in Delhi.
Delhi Police in coordination with the Haryana Police was seen checking vehicles entering the capital, and have put even cemented barricades and sand trucks to stop the protesting farmers who are marching towards Delhi in large numbers in their tractors and trolleys.
Senior police officers have been supervising the security arrangements specially at the Singhu border, Faridabad and Gurugram borders.
“Security on both sides of the Tikri Border was reinforced in coordination with the Haryana Police to prevent any untoward incident in the wake of ongoing farmer’s agitation and Covid-19,” said DCP Outer Dr. A.Koan.
The Delhi Police have already rejected the protest requests from the farmers citing the coronavirus pandemic.
“All the requests received from the various farmer organisations regarding protest in Delhi on 26 and 27 November have been rejected and this has already been communicated to the organisers,” Eish Singhal, Delhi Police PRO said.
The Delhi Police requested the farmers to cooperate with them in ensuring no gathering in Delhi amid coronavirus, failing which legal action will be initiated as per the law.
There is also a heavy deployment at the Ghazipur border, DND and Chilla too as a preventive measure. Several routes have also been diverted by the Delhi traffic police.
“All motorists are hereby advised to avoid Delhi Borders in view of the protest march called by All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee on 26 & 27 November against the Central Government’s Farm Laws,” the Delhi traffic police tweeted.
The farmers were undeterred even as the Haryana Police set up road barricades and diversions on the highways to prevent them from reaching the national capital as part of their “Delhi Chalo” march. The farmers have also threatened to block all roads to Delhi if authorities stopped them during their march.
In view of a planned protest march by the farmers against the new farm laws of the Centre, the Delhi metro services in some areas have been curtailed till 2 p.m.New Delhi, IANS