Farmers would march towards Parliament on Budget Day, 1st Feb

Farmers plans for the near future

Farmers, who faced challenges after their tractor meeting turned violent at Red Fort on Republic Day, have expressed their determination to continue protests demanding the repeal of the farm rules. The farmers' unions also said they had no plans to delay or stop their march to Parliament on Budget Day. However, the government will soon ask farmers about their deteriorating protest march on Tuesday, January 26.

Tens of thousands of protesters clashed with police in several places, leading to riots in the well-known Delhi suburbs, amid waves of day-to-day violence, which left farmers with a peaceful two-month march.Twenty-two FIRs were registered in connection with the violence during the rally yesterday, Delhi police said on Wednesday morning. The FIR was also registered at the Indraprastha (IP) police station against unknown protesters including a farmer who died after his tractor overturned after climbing a fence, police said.

During a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and attended by Home Affairs Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava on Tuesday, Shah instructed Delhi police officials to take action against those involved in the violence. About 1,500 to 2,000 military personnel will be repatriated to sensitive areas in the national capital, reports PTI.

The home affairs minister recounted the situation after hundreds of farmers protested with tractors blocking police barricades from entering central areas of the delta, including the Red Fort and ITO.

Farmers, mainly from the Punjab, Haryana and west of Uttar Pradesh, have been camping in several Delhi border areas, including Tikri, Shuhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding the complete abolition of three farm regulations and a legal guarantee of low crop support.

While many negotiations with the government reached a stalemate and failed to resolve the issue, farmers continued to protest against the three agricultural laws. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said the next round of talks would only take place when farmers were ready to talk about the government's 1.5-year rule of law.

Union leaders do not seem ready to abandon their demands to abolish the rules and the official guarantee of supportive prices (MSP). The unions will inevitably want to wait to see how the opposition parties take up the issue in the Budget process, which starts on Friday.