The story so far: On February 13, groups of farmers heeded a call given by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and began a march to the national capital, to press for fulfilment of their demands, which include a legal guarantee for purchasing crops at Minimum Support Price (MSP) and a farm loan waiver.
How has the march progressed?
While farmers from different States have reportedly started heading for Delhi, it has been largely from Punjab that scores of farmers started their ‘tractor-trolley’ march to reach Delhi via Haryana. As farmers arrived at Shambhu-Ambala and Khanauri-Jind, the inter-state boundary between Haryana-Punjab, they were stopped from entering Haryana. The Haryana government had put in place elaborate security arrangements with multi-layer barricades, which included iron nails, barbed wires, concrete barricade-blocks, boulders, trenches and anti-riot vehicles on the roads bordering Punjab. Additionally, the police resorted to the use of tear gas through drones, and water cannons to disperse the agitating farmers. Police-farmer clashes ensued when farmer groups attempted to enter Haryana by pushing and throwing away the multi-layer barricades.
