Meanwhile, Haryana security personnel stationed at the Shambhu border point between Punjab and Haryana fired some tear gas shells after some young farmers were seen heading towards the multi-layered barricades there.After Haryana Police lobbed tear gas canisters at around 11 am, some of the young farmers ran for cover.Farmers will resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march today after they rejected the BJP-led Centre’s proposal for procuring pulses, maize and cotton at the MSP by government agencies for five years.Thousands of farmers, who began their march to Delhi on February 13, were stopped at the Haryana border itself, where they had several stand-offs with security personnel. Tear gas shells were pelted using drones and several farmers suffered injuries. Rubber shells and water cannons too were used against some of the agitating protestors. Security personnel too sustained injuries.The farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri points on Punjab’s border with Haryana since then.The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march to press the government to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP for crops and a farm loan waiver.Besides a legal guarantee of MSP, the farmers are demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.(With PTI inputs)
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