[caption id="attachment_210132" align="aligncenter" width="565"]
Police use water cannons to disperse farmers protesting at Delhi-UP border during ‘Kisan Kranti Padyatra’ in New Delhi on Tuesday.(PTI)[/caption]
New Delhi, Oct. 2 (IANS): The protest by thousands of farmers at the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border turned violent on Tuesday as they tried to break barricades and run them over with tractors to enter the national capital, forcing police to use water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse them
The police action led to several injuries while one of the protestors lost consciousness, said an agitating farmer. They also claimed that the policemen baton-charged to disperse the protestors.
The farmers, who were marching to Delhi from Haridwar under the banner of Kisan Kranti Yatra demanding complete loan waiver and reduction in electricity tariff among other, were stopped by police at the border near Ghaziabad.
The protesters started their 10-day march from Haridwar lead by the Bharatiya Kisan Union and on Tuesday they reached the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border.
In view of the protest, heavy security forces were deployed at the border area and section 144 was also imposed in the several areas of the national capital.
Protesting farmers not ‘satisfied’ with govt assurance — Tikait
As thousands of farmers tried to enter the national capital in a massive protest march, the government Tuesday announced that a committee of chief ministers will look into their demands, even as the protesters stayed put saying they were not “satisfied” with the assurance.
After meeting the protesting farmers at the Delhi-UP border here, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the government was assuring the farmers to take forward their cause.
“I assure you all this. We will move court over the NGT order (to ban tractor and vehicles which are more than 10 years old),” he said.
On another problem faced by the farmers about farm labour, the minister said the government would look at bringing in some changes to the minimum wage rules for rural areas to solve this problem.
“The government has formed a committee of six chief ministers to look into this issue of labour for farm. The committee is in talks to connect MNREGA with agriculture,” Shekhawat added.
“On behalf of (Union Home Minister) Rajnath Singh, I assure you that I will represent the farmers’ interests in this committee and whatever changes would be required to link MNREGA with agriculture will be made,” Shekhawat told the farmers.
The protesting farmers, however, decided to stay put at the Delhi border, where they have been stopped by the police from entering the national capital. Naresh Tikait, the chief of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which has given the protest call, said the farmers are “not satisfied” with the government’s assurance.
“We will discuss this and then decide on future course of action. I cannot decide anything alone, our committee will take the decision,” he added.
The farmers were marching towards Delhi over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices, but were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border with police using water cannons to disperse them.
The farmers, riding tractors and trolleys, broke barricades of the UP Police and then started proceeding towards the barricades put up by the Delhi Police, a senior police officer said
