Farmers’ Protest: Teargas Shells Fired as ‘Delhi Chalo’ March Resumes at Haryana Border

New Delhi: After four rounds of talks with the Centre failed to yield any results, protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana resumed their ‘Delhi Chalo’ call from Shambhu border, where they were camping, on Wednesday.

According to a report in The Tribune, tear gas shells were fired from the Haryana side as farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher announced that they would enter Haryana on the way to Delhi.

“We will lead this protest and we will win”, they said as tear gas shells were fired on the farmers, who had reached close to the barricades, the reports said.

The farmers’ protest is being spearheaded by the Samuykta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha. They are demanding a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), implementation of the Swaminathan Commission formula, one-time debt waiver among others.

The farmers, who had to face teargas firing from drones, concrete barricades, nails and also pellet gun firing, had put their agitation on hold due to talks with three Central ministers. However, the proposal by the Centre for a 5-year contractual MSP for three crops and a crop diversification plan failed to cut any ice with the farmers, who rejected it as an “eyewash”.

Meanwhile, reports said that the Union government had offered a fifth round of talks with farmers,

According to Hindustan Times, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Arjun Munda, said, "After the fourth round, the government is ready to discuss all the issues like MSP, crop diversification, stubble issue, FIR in the fifth round. I again invite the farmer leaders for discussion. It is important for us to maintain peace."

The protesting farmers have repeatedly said that theirs is a peaceful movement, despite fortification by the government.

"We want to appeal to the government to not use force against us," a farmer told NDTV.

Meanwhile, security around the Capital was beefed up, especially at the borders in Ghazipur, Noida, Tikri and Singhu – the protest sites of the year-long farmers’ movement that forced the Union government to withdraw the three farm laws.

Delhi Police has already imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 across the capital for a month.

Recall the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the farmers’ collective that lead the year-long movement, is also holding protest demonstrations in all district headquarters for a law on MSP and in support of their Punjab and Haryana counterparts.