CHANDIGARH: Battle lines were drawn along the Punjab-Haryana border with farmers bringing in heavy machinery, including hydraulic cranes and earth movers, to break the police barricades as they resume their Dilli Chalo march on Wednesday, a day after they rejected a formula floated by the Centre.In a new twist later in the day, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said tractor trolleys cannot run on highways as per the Motor Vehicles Act.It advised farmers to use buses or public transport to go to Delhi instead. A bench of Acting Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji also orally directed the Punjab government to ensure that farmers do not gather in large numbers.Briefing the media on the talks with the Centre, farmer leaders said they had suggested a special session of Parliament to pass a legislation on legal guarantees to the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism for crops. Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said: “We have three major demands: legal guarantee on MSP for all crops; the implementation of the C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission; and loan waiver.’’He said as per government reports, farmers have a total debt of `18.5 lakh crore. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi could make a pre-poll announcement that all farm loans would be waived; a mechanism to do so could be worked out later,” he suggested.At the Shambhu inter-state border, sources said the number of agitators is swelling. There is heavy police deployment in and around Rajpura to manage traffic movement as hundreds of tractor trolleys are rolling towards Shambhu.
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