Delhi Chalo' march by protesting farmers put on hold for two days
Farmer leaders have put their march to the national capital on hold for two days after a protester was killed and about 12 police personnel were injured in clashes at one of protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border.
Farmer leaders have put their march to the national capital on hold for two days after a protester was killed and about 12 police personnel were injured in clashes at one of protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border.
The next course of action will be decided on Friday evening, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters at Shambhu border.
Punjab farmers at Khanauri and Shambhu had resumed their agitation on Wednesday morning after a two-day halt following the fourth round of talks on Sunday night with a panel of three Union ministers in an attempt to break the deadlock.
Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday night that the Centre is ready for talks with protesting farmers "who are our brothers and annadatas".
At a cabinet briefing, he asserted that the Modi government has taken various steps to ensure higher income for farmers. The government is committed to doubling of farmers' income and has taken several steps toward this end, Thakur said.
On whether the issue of farmers protesting at Punjab-Haryana borders was discussed during the Cabinet meeting, the minister said, "We were ready for talks earlier and are ready even today and will be ready to discuss their issues even in future."
Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, on his part, said the interest of farmers across the country should be taken into account while dealing with demands raised by the protesting farmers at the Punjab-Haryana borders, and appealed to them to come for another round of discussions.
Thousands of farmers are camping at the two border points as part of their agitation to demand a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops and farm debt waiver.
On the issue of Centre's invitation for talks, Pandher said farmers had demanded that the meeting should be held for the resolution of the MSP issue.
He slammed the Centre and the Haryana security personnel for using "force" against farmers at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders.
21-year-old Subhkaran Singh, a resident of Ballo village in Punjab's Bathinda district, was killed and a few others injured following a clash between security personnel and protesting farmers at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border.
In a related development, social media platform X on Thursday expressed disagreement with the government's order to block accounts and posts related to the ongoing farmers' protests and called for extending freedom of expression to the affected posts.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT has ordered social media platforms to temporarily block 177 accounts that were linked to farmers' protests on request of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
