Chandigarh, Feb 12: Three Union ministers are scheduled to meet on Monday with a group of leaders of farmers who are organising a march on Delhi. Convoys of tractor-trolleys have already left Punjab in order to participate in the march in the meantime. In an attempt to thwart the farmers’ planned “Delhi Chalo” march on February 13, Haryana officials have reinforced the state’s border with Punjab at many locations in Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad, and Kurukshetra with concrete blocks, iron nails, and barbed wire. In addition, the Haryana government has enforced restrictions in up to fifteen districts pursuant to Section 144 of the CrPC, which forbids any type of demonstration or march including a tractor-trolley and forbids gatherings of five or more individuals in such districts.More than 200 agricultural unions are scheduled to travel to Delhi on February 13 to force the Centre to adopt a number of requests, including the enactment of a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. This announcement has been made by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political). Monday is the scheduled arrival date of Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda, and Nityanand Rai in Chandigarh for a second round of talks with the leader of the farmer community to discuss their demands. At 5:00 p.m., the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 will host the meeting. On February 8, the three Union ministers and I had our first meeting.In addition to a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP), the farmers are demanding the following: the adoption of the recommendations made by the Swaminathan Commission; pensions for farmers and farm labourers; the waiver of farm debt; the dismissal of police cases; and “justice” for the victims of the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri.
