The borders of Tikri, Ghazipur, and Singhu have been made more secure in an effort to avert tomorrow’s massive farmers’ protest in Delhi. Already, border security barriers have been put in place to prevent farmers from entering the nation’s capital. Roads have been marked with nails so that, according to officials, if the farmers who are protesting try to drive into the city, their tires will get punctured.
There will be between 1,000 and 1,500 Delhi Police officers stationed in each of these border regions. But as conditions in these areas change, so will the personnel level and deployment pattern, police sources said.
To make sure farmers don’t use any other form of transportation to enter the city, a number of teams have been established to maintain tight watch on bus stops, metro stations, train stations, and roadways. The districts of Ambala, Jind, and Fatehabad have elaborate plans in place to seal the borders between Punjab and Haryana. The Haryana government has also directed that, prior to the planned farmers’ march, mobile internet services and bulk SMS be suspended in seven districts: Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, and Sirsa.
All of the areas inside Delhi’s North-East district that border Uttar Pradesh have banned large gatherings. This occurs concurrently with farmers getting their tractor-trolleys ready for the march. As they got ready to move toward Delhi, farmers in Rajpura staged a tractor march. Today, the leaders of farmer organizations will be meeting with three union ministers: junior Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, junior Home Minister Nityanand Rai, and junior Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. On Thursday, the first round of meetings took place.
Over 200 farmer unions are scheduled to start the march tomorrow in support of a number of demands, one of which is the passing of legislation securing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
The farmers are also calling for the adoption of the recommendations made by the Swaminathan Commission, pensions for farmers and farm laborers, the cancellation of farm debt, the reversal of police cases, and “justice” for the victims of the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri.
