Punjab farmers gather in villages, ready to leave for Delhi

Surinder Bhardwaj & Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib/Rajpura, Feb 12

Hundreds of farmers have assembled in villages along the Amritsar-Delhi road.

With barricades on state roads only limited to deployment of a few policemen to divert traffic, farmers know that their main battle ground will be the Shambhu barrier where they will have a face-off with the Haryana Police.

A large number of farmers along with tractor-trailers started reaching Fatehgarh Sahib this morning to march towards Delhi. Jagjit Singh Dalewal, state president, BKU (Ekta Sidhupur), paid obeisance at Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib for the success of the meeting to be held between SKM leaders and three Union Ministers as well as for the success of the Delhi protest.

Dalewal said the SKM was marching towards Delhi just for the implementation of the already conceded demands by the Modi government, not for any new demand. “If the government had implemented and accepted demands, there would have been no need for the protest, but due to the indifference of the government, the farmers are forced to start an agitation again in Delhi,” he stated.

Dalewal asked as to why the Union Government was afraid of the farmers’ stir and had detained SKM leaders of other states and sealed the borders of Punjab and deployed paramilitary forces.

Sources inside the Police Department claim that they are yet to get any instructions to stop the farmers and their orders are only to “protect innocent lives” and rush the injured to hospitals in case of a clash at the Shambhu barrier.”

“There is not much we can do to stop them from reaching Haryana borders. Even if we plan to block the road, there are other ways through villages,” said an SHO.

Information gathered by The Tribune reveals that farmers have started gathering in villages and instructions are to start their march towards Delhi in the wee hours.