As the Delhi Police has allowed the farmers to protest at Jantar Mantar, the farmers are all set to demonstrate in the heart of Delhi on Thursday amid the ongoing monsoon session of parliament demanding the scrapping of Centre’s three contentious farm laws.
Delhi Police permitted the farmers to hold protest at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, in subject to following all Covid-19 guidelines.
Permission has been granted to a limited numbers not exceeding 200 persons for Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and six persons for Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) from 11 am upto 5 pm daily.
“After multiple rounds of negotiations with farmers bodies SKM and KMSC, and on being assured in writing that they would remain peaceful and with the approval of DDMA, the farmers have been permitted to protest at Jantar Mantar with limited numbers not exceeding 200 persons for SKM and six persons for KMSC from 11 am upto 5 pm daily,” the Delhi Police said in its statement.
Security has been tightened at the Singhu border where farmers will gather today from different protest sites and head towards Jantar Mantar.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Delhi Police said the farmers will be escorted by police to Jantar Mantar from the Singhu border in buses.
However, the buses carrying farmers have arrived at Jantar Mantar. Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait has also reached Jantar Mantar as farmers agitate against Central Government’s three farm laws.
Meanwhile, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi along with other party leaders staged a protest along with party MPs in front of Gandhi Statue, in the premises of Parliament.
Security has been heightened in the national capital with personnel deployed at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police Special CP (Crime) Satish Golcha, Joint CP Jaspal Singh and CP Balaji Srivastava yesterday visited Jantar Mantar to review security arrangements.
Apart from the main highway all routes leading to Delhi have been put under surveillance and are being monitored round the clock. Police said they are not taking any chances after what happened on January 26 this year and have made appropriate arrangements.
Delhi had witnessed violent protests during a tractor parade on Republic Day as thousands of agitators clashed with the police.
Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The government has projected the new laws as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the mandi system and middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers argue that the new laws have no mention of minimum support price (MSP) and the mandis that will leave them at the mercy of big corporates.
So far, several round of talks between the Centre and farmer leaders as farmers are stuck to their demands of repealing the three laws.While the government asked them to consider their offer of deferring the laws to one and half years.
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