Farmers’ tractor rally on R-Day: Meeting underway between Delhi Police, farmer unions

New Delhi: A meeting is underway between the Delhi Police and farmer unions regarding the proposed tractor rally by them on Republic Day, officials said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Northern Range) S S Yadav is coordinating the meeting which is being held at Mantram Resort near the Singhu border, they said.

A similar meeting was held on Wednesday between the union leaders and officers of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana police at Vigyan Bhawan to discuss the route and arrangements of the proposed rally on January 26.

However, the farmer unions had rejected a suggestion by the police officers to hold the rally on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway instead of Delhi’s busy Outer Ring Road, sources said.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at several Delhi border points against the Centre’s new agriculture laws for nearly two months. The unions representing the farmers have begun holding tractor rallies at villages in Punjab to mobilise people for the demonstration on Republic Day.

The farmers are vehemently opposing the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.

Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP (minimum support price) and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.