The Delhi Salo rally of farmers from Punjab began today, 13 February. The rally began after more than 5 hours of talks with Union ministers ended in failure.
Nearly 200 agricultural organisations had planned to march towards Delhi on February 13 with various demands. In this context, the first phase of talks between Union Ministers and farmers happened on 9 February. After the talks the farmers were not convinced and the Union Ministers crew decided to have a second round of talk on 12 February. The talk began around 5.30 pm yesterday in Chandigarh and lasted for nearly 7 hours. Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda held talks with the leaders of the Farmer’s organisation.
Inconclusive talks
By 11 pm, the two sides reached an agreement on demands like Electricity Act 2020, compensation to families of those killed in Lakhimpur Gari, cancellation of cases against farmers belonging to organisations. However, no agreement was reached on the main demands such as enactment of a law regarding fixing of minimum prices for all crops, cancellation of agriculture loans and implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
So, the talks ended in failure before midnight. Following this, Jagjit Singh Dalewal, President of the Farmers Union said that the negotiation took place for a long time but ended in disappointment. Those are not demands but the promises of the government. So they decided to march towards Delhi as planned.
Farmers march to Delhi
The farmers began their march around 10am from the Fatehgarh Sahib and moved towards Delhi via the Shambhu border.
Security alert around Delhi
Meanwhile, police security has been strengthened in the border areas adjacent to Delhi to prevent the farmers’ rally. Delhi police enforced section 144 of CrPC for 1 month in Delhi from 12.02.20224 to 12.03.2024. A large number of policemen have been deployed in Singu, Tigri and Hashipur border areas. The police force also had tear gas shells on the Shambhu border to stop them and the police dug up the roads to stop the farmers entering with their tractors. Police have banned public gatherings and tractors from entering the city for a month. Most of the roads are barricaded with concrete and barbed wire. Commercial vehicles are prohibited from entering the city.
The Haryana government has also beefed up security along the borders of Punjab including Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad, Kurushetra and Sirsa.
Delhi Protest 2021
Farmers have already done a year long protest continuously in the borders of Delhi last year against the new 3 agricultural laws brought by the central government on 2021. It is noteworthy that since they have been protesting for more than a year, the government has taken precautionary measures to prevent the same from happening this time.
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