3 Facing a standoff at the borders of Punjab and Haryana, union ministers will meet with leaders of the farming community in Chandigarh for a third round of negotiations.
Many prominent farmer unions have pledged their support to the farmer unions protesting at the borders of Shambhu and Khanauri in Punjab. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and BKU Dakaunda (Dhaner faction) have announced a “rail roko” (stop trains) in the state on Thursday, February 15, between 12 noon and 4 pm. The current protests have also received backing from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella organization of 37 farm unions. For their crops, the demonstrators are calling for a minimum support price or MSP.
These unions joined the current protests in response to the “condemnable use of violence” against farmers, and they had been major players in the fringe demonstrations in Delhi in 2021. Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary of BKU (Ugrahan), has criticized the police action.
We are united in our support of them. He declared, “Our supporters will stop trains, or rail roko, at as many locations as we can to demonstrate this. He stated that the group will shut down train lines in Punjab on Thursday from 12 to 4 p.m., one day ahead of the wider nationwide walkout scheduled for February 16.
- Important details of farmers’ “Delhi chalo” protest
The BKU Ugrahan and BKU Dakaunda (Dhaner faction) will jointly participate in the rail roko protest, and The Indian Express stated that approximately ten protest sites have been finalized. More locations are probably going to be added by tonight. - The report further stated that the following places have been chosen for the rail roko protests: Rajpura, Sunam (next to the borders of Shambu and Khanauri, respectively), Jethuke hamlet in Bathinda, Moga, Mansa, Malaut, Valla railway crossing in Amritsar, Barnala, Sangrur, and Budhlada. The Amritsar-Jalandhar-Delhi line, the Mansa-Bathinda-Delhi line, the Ludhiana-Ferozepur line, and numerous other areas will be impacted, according to BKU Ugrahan general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan.
- As the standoff between protesters and police at the Punjab-Haryana border enters its third day, characterized by increased skirmishes between the two sides, three Union ministers will meet farmers’ representatives in Chandigarh on Thursday for the third round of discussions. The two previous gatherings that took place before the march started as “inconclusive.”
- At five o’clock in the evening, federal ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai will meet with Sarwan Singh Pandher, the leader of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.
- According to reports, Agricultural Minister Arjun Munda and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh discussed ways to resolve the problems facing farmers in New Delhi.
- On Wednesday, security personnel shelled the “Delhi Chalo” demonstrators intermittently at the Shambhu border post near Ambala. Every time a farmer group approached the barriers, security personnel would use tear gas. According to reports, the demonstrators threw stones at the security officers.
- In the Jind district of Haryana, a similar standoff was observed to be ongoing at the Data Singhwala-Khanauri border. However, things were still less tumultuous than they were on Tuesday when farmers attempted to advance toward the national capital by using their tractors to move cement barriers at Shambhu.
- Farmer leaders reported that tear gas and rubber bullets struck more than 100 demonstrators on Tuesday, causing injuries. According to the police, protestors’ stone-throwing on the first day of the demonstration injured 24 of their soldiers.
- Farmers with their tractor-trolleys along the road at the border of Shambhu, and more coming from various parts of Punjab, are still more than 200 km away from their destination.
- The borders between Delhi and the states of Haryana at Singhu and Tikri, as well as between Uttar Pradesh and Ghazipur, are marked with several levels of concrete blocks and metal spikes.
- Traffic from Delhi to Sonipat at Singhu and the flow of cars to Bahadurgarh. Commuters in Delhi encountered difficulties crossing the Singhu border because of the area’s closure.
