farmer protest threatens to intensify

Farmers have been protesting for months now and tried to move ahead in Haryana but were stopped

Police of Haryana and farmers law protesters on Sunday nearly clashed at the border of Rewari-Alwar  after a hundred protesters started to march towards Delhi to join agitation against the newly proposed agricultural laws. According to reports, police fired several rounds of tear gas to stop the march. The farmers were trying to break the cordon and police barriers to move forward, sources said. Police managed to stop them at the local bridge. "We are stopping them in Masani," Rewari police chief Abhishek Jorwal said to a news reporter.

In November last year, thousands of Punjab farmers had to brave water cannons and tear gas shells as Haryana police tried to stop their protest march to Delhi. Meanwhile, in the Punjab province of Sangrur, police today charged a group of farmers who were trying to march on a rally hosted by BJP president Ashwani Kumar Sharma.

After the sixth round of talks with the farmers' center last week, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the two sides had reached an "agreement" on two of the four demands. The government, sources said, said it would repeal the Electricity Amendment Bill and the provisions for racial discrimination in the Air Quality Commission Ordinance. However, no progress has been made in the major demands of farmers - to repeal the three rules and to provide legal guarantee of a minimum price system. Farmers threatened to intensify protests if the center rejected the remaining two demands at the January 4 meeting. A coalition of 40 farmers' unions, which led the protests, also threatened to march to Delhi if demands were not met by Republic Day. The government has refused to acknowledge, even in terms of our policies, that we have a legal right to purchase from the MSP.

Farmers fear that the laws will put them at risk of exploiting corporate housing. They also said that with these rules, the institution wants to end the low price system. The government, however, says these laws are not intended to end the existing system but to provide better ways for farmers to sell their crops. It has promised that the MSP system will be in place.