Rakesh Tikait, the leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), promised on Saturday to “strengthen the movement” against three contentious farm laws, as tens of thousands of farmers took to the streets in Punjab and Haryana to mark the seventh month of their protest.
“We decided to strengthen our movement in today’s meeting. We’ve decided to hold two more rallies: on July 9, a tractor rally with people from Shamli and Baghpat will take place, and it will reach the Singhu border on July 10,” Tikait was quoted as saying.
“Another rally will be held on July 24, people from Bijnor and Meerut will be present in it. On the night of July 24, they will halt at Meerut toll and on July 25, the rally will reach here (Delhi-Ghazipur),” he added.
Farmers have been protesting at the national capital’s various borders since November 26 in opposition to three recently enacted farm laws: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Meanwhile, farmers stationed at Delhi’s Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur borders marked Saturday as “Save Agriculture, Save Democracy Day” to commemorate seven months of protesting and delivered a memorandum to all governors in the name of India’s President.
Similar protests were held in Punjab and Haryana, where police used a water cannon to disperse protesting farmers who attempted to march towards the Punjab governor’s house by breaking barricades at the Chandigarh-Mohali border.
The Haryana Police made security arrangements at the Chandigarh-Panchkula border in anticipation of the farmers’ protest march. Farmers in Panchkula broke through a layer of barricades but were unable to enter Chandigarh and were stopped at the Panchkula border by Haryana police, who had deployed a water cannon and trucks.
