Protesting farmers on Sunday suspended their March to Delhi for the second time in two days after the police fired tear gas at them at Shambhu, on the border between Punjab and Haryana, reported The Indian Express.
The march was held back by several layers of barricades set up by the Haryana Police. At least eight protestors were injured due to police action, according to PTI.
Farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri, on the inter-state border between Haryana and Punjab, in protest since February.
A group of 101 farmers from the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Samyukta Kisan Morcha groups had attempted to march towards Delhi on Friday but called off the move after tear gas shelling by the Haryana Police resulted in injuries to several protestors.
The farmers’ groups have been demanding a legal guarantee for minimum support prices and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for agricultural reform. The farmers have also alleged that the Centre has not taken steps to address their demands, claiming that no talks have been held since February 18.
The Haryana Police has questioned the identity of some protesters and refused to allow them to proceed toward the capital, reported NDTV.
“We have a list of the names of 101 farmers and they are not those people,” a Haryana Police official told ANI. “They are not letting us identify them – they are moving ahead as a mob.”
“We have asked them [the police] to let us move ahead, and we will show them our identity cards,” NDTV quoted a protesting farmer as saying.“But the police are saying that we don’t have the permission to move ahead.”
Farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher accused the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government of colluding with the Centre to act against protesters. He also said that members of the press were being restricted from carrying out their jobs at Shambhu.
Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticised the police action against farmers on Friday, saying that firing of teargas shells at the protestors was condemnable.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said in Parliament that the Centre would purchase all farm produce at a minimum support price.
“I want to assure the House through you that all produce of farmers will be purchased at minimum support price,” Chouhan told the Rajya Sabha. “This is the Modi government and the guarantee to fulfil Modi’s guarantee.”
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