News Analysis India

Tag: Haryana Police

  • 40-year-old Punjab farmer ends life at Singhu border: Haryana Police

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: A 40-year-old Punjab farmer, who was taking part in the protest at the Singhu border against the Central farm laws, allegedly took his own life by consuming some poisonous substance on Saturday evening, police said.

    The farmer, Amarinder Singh, was a resident of Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district.

    The man was rushed to a local hospital in Sonipat where he died, said Sonipat’s Kundli police station’s inspector Ravi Kumar.

    ALSO READ: Ready with pleas to challenge farm laws, waiting for right time, says Punjab CM Amarinder Singh

    Farmers from various parts of the country, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at different border points of Delhi for over a month now demanding repeal of the three agri laws, which were voted through in Parliament in September amid strong protests by opposition parties.

    The three laws have been projected by the central government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.

    ALSO READ: Agri laws: Wisconsin Speaker supports farmers’ protests; writes to Indian, US envoys

    However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

    The government has repeatedly asserted that the MSP and Mandi systems will stay and has accused the opposition of misleading the farmers.

  • SC takes note after Panjab University students write to CJI, seek probe into police ‘atrocities’

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear 35 students of Panjab University who wrote to the Chief Justice urging him to take cognizance of police excesses against protesting farmers.

    The top court registered the letter written by these students as a PIL. In their letter, the students appealed the top court to order an inquiry into the Haryana Police’s action of ‘illegitimate’ use of water cannons, tear gas shells and lathis on the peaceful protesting farmers. The letter contended that farmers are protesting peacefully, but the government  is not sensitive to these issues.

    Incidentally, the Haryana Police on Sunday had fired tear gas shells to stop a group of farmers from moving towards Delhi. Hundreds of farmers, mostly from Punjab, have been protesting at Delhi borders for over a month for repeal of the three recently enacted farm laws. The students have urged the Chief Justice to direct the Haryana and Delhi Police to withdraw all the cases against innocent farmers which, they claimed, were registered as political vendetta, as well as order a probe into the cases of illegal detention of farmers. 

    The students from the Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, also sought a direction from the top court to both the Centre and the state governments to ensure the safety of all protesters, and to provide basic amenities to all, especially women, children and the elderly.

    MP minister attacks protestersMP agriculture minister Kamal Patel said farmers staging protest on Delhi borders have rejected pleas to end their stir as they are “enacting a drama to sleep” and it is not possible to “awake” them.

    Hooda reaches out to farmersHaryana Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Congress will provide a financial assistance of `2 lakh each to families of farmers who have died during the agitation. 

  • SC accepts petition sent to CJI seeking inquiry against Haryana Police for using water cannons on farmers

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court accepted a letter petition sent to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde by a group of students from Punjab seeking an inquiry against Haryana Police for using water cannons, tear gases shells on farmers to stop them from proceeding to Delhi to protest against the Centre’s newly-enacted farm laws.

    The students wrote an open letter to the CJI and urged that Haryana and Delhi police withdraw all the cases against farmers which were registered under alleged political vendetta.

    The letter, written by former and current human rights students of the Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Punjab University, also asked that the cases of illegal detention of protesters be looked into.

    The letter signed by Gurmohan Preet Singh and 34 other students requested that the governments at both Central and State level ensure the safety of all protesters, and provide basic amenities for all, especially women, children and elderly. It also asked for mobile toilet vans to be provided at protest places.

    “Issue appropriate guidelines, as the court may deem fit, regarding hygienic conditions at protest sites in the backdrop of COVID-19. Take an action to curb fake news and against media channels, engaged in misrepresentation, polarisation and sensationalisation of the whole issue,” it stated.

    They sought top court’s immediate intervention to protect “gross neglect of human rights”.

    “We, being students of human rights are very much disturbed and disheartened by witnessing the execrable way in which the government of India is dealing with its own farmers, who are protesting much peacefully as per their constitutional rights,” the letter said.

    Farmers’ protest at several Delhi borders has been going on for over a month. 

  • Farmers try to break barricades in Haryana, police fire tear gas shells

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: A day before the next round of talks between the protesting farmers and the Centre, a major clash took place on the Delhi-Jaipur highway at Rewari when the Haryana Police tried to stop a group of farmers from marching to Delhi.  

    A group of young farmers from Rajasthan and Haryana, who had been camping at the service lane on the highway near Bhudla-Sangwari village in Rewari, were joined by protesters from Tikri border. On Sunday evening, the group removed the police barricades and started moving towards Delhi. On reaching Masani barrage near Dharuhera town, they were stopped by the police.

    ALSO READ | Farmers brave biting cold, rains act as double whammy for protesting farmers

    As the farmers tried to pull down the barricades, the police resorted to lathi-charge and firing tear gas shells and also blocked the service lane to stop the farmers from marching ahead. A tractor-trolley with blankets and quilts stored inside caught fire during the clash but the blaze was doused by the farmers.

    Some farmers sitting inside jumped off the trolley to save their lives and also managed to take out an LPG cylinder. In another incident, farmers in Punjab’s Sangrur tried to disrupt sate BJP chief Ashwani Sharma’s meeting with the party’s district president Randeep Deol. A few farmers were injured in thepolice lathi-charge. Meanwhile, four more farmers died on Sunday, two each at Singhu and Tikri borders, due to cardiac arrest.

    ‘Farm agitation to continue till three Acts are repealed’Gurugram: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, who reached the protest site in Gurugram on Sunday to support the ongoing agitation, said that the agitation will not end till the government rolls back the new agricultural laws. Tikait alleged that the new farm laws have been made for the benefit of capitalists. He said that till the demands of the farmers are not accepted, the farmers will stay in Delhi and keep protesting against these laws. Soon Rajasthan farmers will also reach the Delhi border, he added. Samyukt Kisan Morcha president Chaudhary Santokh Singh assured that all possible help will be given to the farmers arriving from Rajasthan.

  • Haryana Police uses teargas to stop farmers’ group from moving towards Delhi

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Police on Sunday evening fired teargas canisters to thwart a march of a group of agitating farmers towards Delhi at Masani barrage in Rewari district.

    Farmers first broke police barricades put up near Bhudla Sangwari village and then started moving towards Delhi in the evening.

    They have been camping at the service lane of the Delhi-Jaipur highway for the past few days, police said.

    When the farmers’ group reached Masani barrage where the barricades were put up, police used teargas to disperse them.

    ALSO READ: Will burn copies of new farm laws on Lohri – Farmer leaders

    “We have stopped them (farmers) at Masani,” Rewari Superintendent of Police Abhishek Jorwal said over the phone.

    On December 31, a group of farmers had broken police barricades at the Shahjahanpur border with Rajasthan, trying to move towards the national capital.

    Police had then too resorted to teargas shelling as well as using water cannons to stop them.

    ALSO READ: To keep farmers’ spirit alive, women kabaddi tournament goes on despite rains at Singhu border

    A large number of farmers from Rajasthan, Haryana and some other places have been protesting on the Jaipur-Delhi highway for the past several days, demanding the repeal of new farm laws.

    They have been camping at the Rajasthan-Haryana border point after police had earlier stopped them from proceeding towards Delhi as part of their “Delhi Chalo” march against the new farm laws.