40 farmer leaders met today at the Delhi-Haryana border to discuss follow-up actions after Thursday’s meeting with the government failed to end the deadlock over the contentious new farm laws. The farmer representatives stuck to their demand for the repeal of the laws and even refused lunch, tea and water offered to them during almost seven-hour-long meeting in central Delhi. There has been no change in their stand.
They are demanding the centre withdraws all the three farm laws and any discussion on minimum support price or MSP is “meaningless”. The third round of meeting with the centre will be held tomorrow. Farmer leaders have also given a call for a nation-wide protest tomorrow. The protest – the biggest by farmers in years – has entered the ninth day.
Here are the top 5 updates on farmers’ protest :
- The farmers protesting on the outskirts of Delhi against the centre’s new agricultural laws must be removed because they are blocking emergency medical services, a petition in the Supreme Court claimed on Friday. It was filed by Delhi resident Rishab Sharma, who said the top court had said public places cannot be occupied by protesters and there must be a specific place for it, while hearing a petition in the anti-citizenship law protest in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
- Several roads leading to Delhi continue to be blocked with farmers camped out at four busy border points of the national capital – Singhu, Noida, Ghazipur and Tikri – to press their demands, under heavy police deployment.
- The entry to Delhi from the Delhi-Meerut Expressway has been blocked as farmers from different parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand continue their sit-in. Another key route in east Delhi, connecting the capital to Noida, too has been partially closed for the fourth straight day to the protests. The DND flyway and the Sarita Vihar road are the alternate routes to Noida that are open.
- At least three deaths have been recorded during these protests and the farmers said it would be “inhuman” on the center’s part – given the cold weather – to drag this out any further.
- “The government did propose amendments to the laws but farmers unions still insisted on taking these laws back,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, a leader of the farmers’ group All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee.
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