News Analysis India

Tag: Farmers Protest

  • Elderly farmer participating in a protest in Hisar dies, believed to have suffered heart attack

    By PTI
    HISAR: A farmer, over 70 years in age, who had reached here from a village in Haryana’s Hisar district to be part of a farmers’ protest on Monday died after suddenly collapsing, people at the demonstration site said.

    The farmer, identified as Ram Chander Kharab, a resident if Ugalan village, died at the Krantiman Park in Hisar where a demonstration was organised to protest against the registration of a criminal case against several farmers in connection with their clash with police last week after the inauguration of a Covid hospital here.

    People present at Krantiman Park told reporters that the farmer had come to Hisar on Monday along with some other people of his village to participate in the protest.

    They said that the farmer suddenly collapsed and it is believed, he suffered a heart attack.

    “Ram Chander died due to heart attack,” a resident of his village claimed later.

    Thousands of farmers had reached Hisar on Monday from various places in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and elsewhere responding to their leaders’ calls for protest.

    The Hisar district administration on Monday agreed to withdraw all cases registered against the farmers in connection with the May 16 clash.

    The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting between the district administration and the representatives of various farmer unions here.

    The Haryana police had lodged a criminal case against around 350 farmers for allegedly attacking government employees and stone-pelting during the protest against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar shortly after he inaugurated a Covid hospital there last week.

    The farmers, who reached here from various places since morning, had gathered at Krantiman Park to demand the withdrawal of the case, lodged under the various IPC sections, including the attempt to murder against farmers.

  • Thousands of farmers reach Hisar to protest against FIR against around 350 of them

    By PTI
    HISAR: Thousands of farmers reached Hisar on Monday responding to their leaders’ calls to protest against the registration of a criminal case against several of them during their clash with police last week after the inauguration of a Covid hospital here.

    The Haryana police had lodged a criminal case against around 350 unnamed farmers for allegedly attacking government employees and stone-pelting during the protest against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar shortly after he inaugurated a Covid hospital there last week.

    The farmers, who reached here from Hisar and many adjoining districts including Jind, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Karnal and Sonipat, gathered at Krantiman Park to demand the withdrawal of the case, lodged under the various heinous section, including the attempt to murder against farmers.

    Several farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Joginder Singh Ugrahan and Gurnam Singh Chaduni also reached Hisar.

    As some farmer leaders were addressing the protesters here, the Hisar sub-divisional magistrate approached them, inviting them for talks with the administration.

    Responding to the invite, Tikait, Chaduni and other farmer leaders reached the district’s mini secretariat for talks.

    Talking to reporters earlier, farmer leaders demanded the quashing of the case against farmers.

    Referring to the May 16 incident here, Tikait said senior police officials had assured that no case would be registered against farmers, but they went back on their words later.

    After the registration of a case against them after the May 16 incident, farmer organisations had said they would gherao the Hisar police commissionerate on Monday to demand the withdrawal of the case and action against police personnel who allegedly lathi-charged them.

    Farmers reached Hisar on Monday by buses, tractor-trolleys and other vehicles, leading to various roads in the city getting blocked during their arrival.

    Ahead of farmers descending upon the city on Monday, Hisar was turned into a fortress with multi-layered security cordons thrown around vital installations like mini-secretariat, offices and residences of senior government and police officials in the city on Sunday.

    The administration had deployed a large number of police personnel, including those from the Rapid Action Force (RAF), to deal with any untoward incident at various places in the city, police sources said.

    A large number of farmers, including some women too, began arriving at Krantiman Park from the Monday morning itself.

    Waving tricolors and their union flags, farmers also raised slogans against the government and the three central farm laws.

    The district administration earlier on Sunday too had appealed to farmers to come forward for talks, shunning demonstration amid the grim pandemic.

    Twenty policemen were injured in the clash between the farmers and police on May 16.

    The police had on Thursday clarified that only tear gas was used first and then a mild force was used at the magistrate’s order to protect the hospital from sabotage and to maintain law and order.

  • Ready to resume talks with Centre over farm laws: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said farmer unions were ready to resume talks with the Centre, asserting that the discussion would have to be about repealing the new farm laws.

    He said there is no question of farmers returning home from the protest sites unless their demands are met.

    Tikait was interacting with reporters in Mohali, where he had gone to offer condolences to the family of Abhay Singh Sandhu.

    Sandhu, the nephew of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, died recently due to post-COVID complications.

    “When the government wants to talk, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha will talk,” Tikait said, asserting that it has to be about repealing the Centre’s new farm laws.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 protesting farmer unions, on Friday had written to the prime minister, urging resumption of talks over the three farm laws they have been agitating against since November last year.

    Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government have failed to break the deadlock over the three central laws.

    A government panel had met farmers leaders on January 22.

    There have been no talks between the two sides since January 26 when the farmers’ tractor rally in the national capital turned violent.

    Tikait said May 26 will mark six months of the farmers’ protest at Delhi borders.

    “For six months, farmers have been protesting at border points, but the government is not listening,” he said.

    Twelve major opposition parties, including the Congress, TMC, Left parties, SP, NCP and the DMK, on Sunday extended their support to a countrywide protest call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on May 26.

    According to Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni, farmers in large numbers from Karnal district on Sunday left for the Singhu border as farmers will be observing May 26 as “black day” to mark six months of their protest.

    Farmers have been camping at Delhi’s borders since November 2020 demanding that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

    The government, however, has maintained the three central laws are pro-farmer.

  • 12 opposition parties including Congress, TMC extend support to farmers protest call on May 26

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twelve major opposition parties have extended their support to the call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha to observe countrywide protest on May 26, marking six months of the farmers protest at Delhi borders against the Centre’s farm laws.

    The joint statement has been signed by Sonia Gandhi (Congress), H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Uddhav Thackeray (SS), M K Stalin (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Farooq Abdullah (JKPA), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Tejaswi Yadav (RJD), D Raja (CPI) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M).

    “On May 12, we had jointly written to Prime Minister Modi saying the following: Repeal farm laws to protect lakhs of our annadatas becoming victims of the pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed the Indian people”.

    “We demand the immediate repeal of the farm laws and the legal entitlement to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of C2+50 per cent as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission,” the joint statement said.

    It also said that the Central government must stop being obdurate and immediately resume talks with the SKM on these lines.

  • FIR against Haryana farmers over violence during protest against CM Khattar in Hisar

    By PTI
    HISAR (Haryana): The Haryana police have registered a case against 350 unnamed farmers for allegedly attacking government employees and stone pelting during the protest against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who had inaugurated a COVID hospital here last week.

    The case has been registered on the complaint of Inspector Virendra Kumar, in-charge of Urban Estate Police Station, police said on Thursday.

    The case has been registered under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 188 (obstructing public servant in discharge of his public functions), 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code, a district police spokesperson said.

    Twenty policemen, including five women officials, were injured in the clash between the farmers and the police on Sunday, officials said.

    The police had lobbed tear gas shells and used force to disperse a group of farmers who tried to march towards the venue where Khattar had gone to inaugurate the COVID hospital on May 16.

    Scores of farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws since last November and opposing public functions of BJP-JJP leaders in the state.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers’ unions spearheading the stir against the farm laws, in a statement had condemned the alleged assault on the protesters.

    The police on Thursday clarified that tear gas was used first and then mild force was applied at the magistrate’s order to protect the hospital from sabotage and to maintain law and order.

    They also maintained that although a meeting was held between the farmer leaders and police after the incident on Sunday evening, the IG Police (Hisar Range) did not give any assurance that no FIR would be registered against the protesters, as was being claimed by some farmer leaders.

    The police said when the protesters had started gathering on Sunday, the district police chief repeatedly informed them that the CM had already left the venue after inaugurating the COVID hospital.

    However, the protesters did not pay heed and carried on with the agitation.

    The police added that though some senior farmer leaders made efforts to stop some of the young protesters who had turned aggressive, they did not listen to the leaders.

    “The agitators indulged in vandalism and blockade near the Jindal bridge and rammed barricades when the DSP and other police force reached the entrance of the newly-constructed Chaudhary Devi Lal Sanjeevani Hospital.

    “They also tried to injure police officers by hitting them with vehicles and tractors several times. Heavy stones were also thrown at the police,” a police spokesperson said.

    Meanwhile, Haryana Congress leader and Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi condemned the registration of case against the farmers and sought a judicial inquiry into the entire incident.

  • Farmers protest against Haryana CM in Hisar, police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators

    By PTI
    HISAR: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday inaugurated a 500-bed COVID hospital here and said his government is committed to expand the healthcare facilities in the sate amid the raging pandemic.

    Earlier, a group of farmers tried to move towards the venue where Khattar was to inaugurate the hospital but they were dispersed by police by using force and lobbying tear gas shells.

    Khattar said with the inauguration of the Chaudhary Devi Lal Sanjivani COVID hospital, not only the coronavirus patients of Hisar district but the people of nearby districts would be able to get the required treatment at the facility.

    On April 26, Khattar had visited Hisar and identified the campus of Jindal Modern School adjoining Jindal Stainless Limited unit and after completing all the necessary procedures, the hospital was constructed in a record 17 days time, an official statement said.

    “In this difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic, this hospital is certainly a boon for COVID-19 patients as it has adequate availability of beds and oxygen,” it said.

    “The hospital will directly get about eight metric tonnes of oxygen supply from Jindal Stainless Limited, which will be available at 71 liters per minute per bed. It is proposed that no fee would be charged from the patients who will come to get treatment in this hospital,”” the statement said.

    Khattar said the Haryana government is constantly working to provide better healthcare facilities to the people by making necessary arrangements required for the prevention of COVID-19 in the state.

    He said 12,375 beds have been made available in government and private hospitals of the state.

    Now this number has increased to 13,500, he added.

    The chief minister said the COVID-19 pandemic has hit everyone unexpectedly.

    “All the sections of the society have to fight this pandemic by staying united, positive, and cooperating with frontline workers,” he said.

    The chief minister said that the opposition is unnecessarily blaming the government on the COVID-19 issue, which “is certainly not an ethical thing to do in this hour of crisis”.

    “Instead of levelling allegations on the government, the opposition should make the information available to the public about what the government has done,” the statement quoted him as saying.

    Khattar said the opposition should give its suggestions to the government on how to fight the pandemic.

    “This is not the right time to accuse the government.”

    The chief minister also appealed to the agitating farmers to cooperate with the government in its fight against the deadly virus.

    He urged that understanding the need of the hour, the farmers, who are protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws, should immediately call off their stir so as to ensure that the chain of virus spread is broken.

    “This is the biggest crisis of humanity, so we all have to fight together. This pandemic is not limited to any person, a city, or a class. This is the fight of the whole world,” he added.

    Khattar’s appeal came after farmers tried to reach the venue of his event.

    Police said the farmers jumped police barricades and they had to use force and resort to tear gas shelling to disperse them.

    The farmers claimed that a few of them were injured in police action.

    A police spokesman said farmers pelted stones at the force and some personnel were injured and subsequently hospitalised.

    Police said they detained some agitators, included women, as they were marching towards the venue to create obstructions in the chief minister’s event.

    The farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws and they been opposing the public functions of the BJP-JJP leaders in the state over it.

    As farmers started assembling in numbers and marching towards the venue, the chief minister left after he inaugurated the hospital.

    Earlier, a large number of farmers riding on tractors allegedly broke police barricades near Mayyar and Satrod villages on Hisar-Delhi National highway.

    To protest the police action, farmers squatted and blocked some roads in the district.

    Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh said over 150 farmers have been detained and demanded their immediately release.

    Khattar said 1,000 teams have already been deputed to conduct door-to-door COVID-19 testing in villages from May 15.

    He said the rates of private hospitals and ambulances have also been capped by the state government and strict action will be taken against those flouting the rules.

    The Centre has said the new farm laws will benefit farmers by freeing them from the clutches of middlemen and ushering in new technology in the sector.

    However, farmers say these legislations will remove the safety net of the minimum support price (MSP) and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.

  • Suspend stir, it’s spreading COVID to villages: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar to farmers

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday urged farmers to suspend their stir against farm laws amid the grim Covid-19 situation, claiming that their movements to and from dharna sites were spreading the infection in villages.

    Khattar said farmers may resume their agitation later if they wish, but they must stop it as of now.

    “If they wish to restart these dharnas once the situation is under control, they are free to do so,” Khattar told a news conference digitally.

    He said he had appealed to farmers’ leaders even a month earlier to suspend their dharnas so that the disease does not spread.

    Referring to farmers’ movement to and from dharna sites, Khattar said, “What is coming to the fore now is that because of these dharnas, this (infection) has spread.

    “In many villages, hotspots have emerged because their people are regularly coming and going back from dharna sites,” the chief minister added.

    Farmers have not only been sitting in protest near the Singhu and Tikri borders but in many other parts of Haryana too.

    “Their leaders should understand the situation even now. They keep ranting that they will take the vaccine but will not get themselves tested. If they do not get tested, one doesn’t know who might have been impacted by COVID,” said Khattar.

    “They should come forward to be tested so that those found positive can be treated and other necessary measures can be taken accordingly,” he added.

    Referring to protesting farmers’ reluctance to be tested for the infection, the chief minister said “everyone should have faith in the health and medical system. If we start doubting it, it displays our narrow-mindedness. So, I appeal to farmers sitting on dharnas to get their tests done”.

    Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, Khattar had earlier nearly a month ago too had urged farmers to withdraw their stir on “humanitarian grounds”.

    He had then said while it is the constitutional right of every person to protest and the state does not have a problem with anyone doing so in a peaceful manner, the situation due to rising COVID cases is a matter of concern.

    Days after the CM’s appeal last month, Haryana BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni had then said protesting farmers should not be compelled to get themselves tested or vaccinated and if health workers tried to force them, they will not allow them to enter protest sites.

    Khattar, meanwhile, was also asked to comment on the allegations that a woman from West Bengal, who died after showing COVID-like symptoms, at a hospital in Bahadurgarh, had been raped by two men she had accompanied to a farmers’ protest site at the Tikri border.

    “Police are conducting investigations. Whosoever is found guilty in investigations, strict action will be taken against them as per law,” said Khattar.

    Haryana Police had on Sunday formed a special investigation team to probe the allegations after the 25-year-old woman’s father lodged a police complaint.

    Six people, including two prime accused, have been named in an FIR lodged on a complaint by the father of the deceased woman on Saturday.

  • Farmers protest lockdown in Punjab; shops stay shut despite appeals to defy curbs

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Despite appeals by farmers who took out protest marches against the weekend lockdown imposed by the state government, shopkeepers in Punjab kept their shops shut on Saturday.

    Punjab’s 32 farmer unions, protesting the Central farm laws, had announced to hold street protests against the lockdown in the state and had urged shopkeepers to defy the restrictions.

    Amid a second wave of COVID-19, farmers took out protest marches at several places, including Moga, Patiala, Amritsar, Ajnala, Nabha, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda.

    Carrying flags of their unions, farmers, including women, took out marches in the markets and appealed to shopkeepers and traders through loudspeakers to open their shops.

    However, the shopkeepers kept their shops closed.

    Police personnel in adequate numbers were deployed across the state in the wake of the protest call by farmers.

    “We told farmers that we will not go against the law and order of the state and whatever the government decides, we will go by that,” said Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal general secretary Sameer Jain.

    Another Ludhiana-based trader, Sunil Mehra, said shopkeepers will continue to raise their voice in a democratic way.

    “How could we open shops when there is a weekend lockdown in the state,” asked Mehra.

    Some traders said the district administrations had also assured them to find ways for the opening of shops dealing in non-essential items next week.

    “We appealed to shopkeepers to open their shops. We told them that we are with them,” said Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan in Moga.

    “The lockdown is not a solution to deal with the COVID-19 crisis,” he said, alleging that shopkeepers were forced to shut their shops.

    Khokrikalan also accused the government of doing nothing to improve the health infrastructure despite being well aware of the second wave of COVID-19.

    Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday had directed the state DGP to strictly enforce the weekend lockdown in the state and deal stringently with any violation in view of the farmers’ call for the protest.

    The state government has imposed extensive COVID-19 curbs in addition to measures like the weekend lockdown and night curfew till May 15.

    In Amritsar, a farmer leader said if the state government wanted to impose a weekend lockdown, then it should give ration to shopkeepers and waive their electricity bills and other taxes.

    A police team took out a flag march in a market in Ajnala with officials saying nobody will be allowed to violate the curbs.

    Earlier this week, shopkeepers in Punjab had held protests against the state government’s order of the closure of shops dealing in non-essential items.

    The chief minister on Friday had authorised the deputy commissioners to take any decision on the opening of shops or private officers on rotation, after taking the local MLAs and other stakeholders into confidence.

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  • BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, 12 others booked in Haryana

    By IANS
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Police has registered a case against Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait and 12 others for violating prohibitory orders, officials said on Sunday.

    Tikait and other leaders addressed the ‘Mahapanchayat’ in a village near Ambala Cantonment on Saturday.

    The other BJP leaders who have been booked included Ratan Maan Singh, Baldev Singh and Jasmer Saini.

    To contain the pandemic, the district magistrate had imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which bars a gathering of four or more persons.

  • Protesting farmers to be tested, vaccinated against COVID-19 in Haryana, says Anil Vij

    By ANI
    CHANDIGARH: Expressing concern for farmers, who have been protesting against the central agricultural laws at Delhi-Haryana borders, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Tuesday said they will be tested for COVID-19 and vaccinated against it.

    “It is my duty to worry about everyone in Haryana. Farmers are protesting here in large numbers. We have decided to vaccinate them and get them tested for COVID-19. Yesterday, we had a meeting with state-level corona monitoring committee, wherein we took this decision,” Vij told ANI.

    The Minister further informed that he had talked to Deputy Commissioner of Sonipat and Jhajjar, about the vaccination and testing of farmers protesting at the border.

    Earlier, Vij had said the state will work on the guidelines given by the Prime Minister, but he is concerned about how to protect the protesting farmers at the Haryana border from COVID-19.

    He had participated in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding COVID-19 situation on Thursday evening.

    “We will work on the guidelines given by the Prime Minister. But my concern is to protect the farmers from the coronavirus, who have gathered at the border of Haryana. I have to save them from the COVID-19,” he had said.

    Haryana reported 3,146 new COVID-19 cases and 33 related deaths in the past 24 hours, said the state health ministry.

    Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three 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.