HARYANA Police on Friday fired tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers when they moved towards the barricades at the Shambhu border near Ambala, a day after talks between Union Ministers and farmer leaders remained inconclusive. The fresh confrontation comes on the fourth day of the farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, to press the Government to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops. Amid the impasse, the Union Ministers and farmer leaders will meet on February 18 for the fourth round of talks. The two sides met on February 8, 12 and 15 as well but those talks remained inconclusive.

 

The farmers from Punjab began their march to the national capital on Tuesday but were stopped by security personnel at Shambhu and Khanauri points on Punjab’s border with Haryana. The protesters have stayed put at the two border points since then. 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.