A large contingent of farmers have gathered at the Shambhu border from where they have proposed to march towards Delhi later on on Friday. Drone visuals from the site showed large groups of farmers converging at the border.
At the Shambhu border, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said that there would be a group of 100 farmers who would be marching towards Delhi peacefully and have no intention of breaking the barricades present.
Speaking to ANI, Pandher said “The central and state governments had told the Supreme Court that they had a problem with farmers moving towards Delhi on tractors. A group of 100 farmers will move towards Delhi peacefully. We have no intention of breaking the barricades. We hope that the government allows us to move towards Delhi and protest peacefully. The doors for talk are open from the farmers side. We have been saying that if the government wants to talk, then they show us the letter of the the central government or the CM’s office of Haryana or Punjab..”
A protestor complained that the promises made to them were not fulfilled and questioned on why the government was stopping them at the borders.
“We are here on a protest and will be going till Delhi.. the government can do anything they want. None of the promises made to us are being fulfilled.. we are Indians too, and most importantly farmers. Why are they stopping us at the borders. Why cant they let us protest peacefully..? The BJP government, the central government are not listening to us…,” questioned the protestor.
Sukhwinder Kaur, another protestor said that the protest would continue and taking in consideration the request made by the Haryana government, they decided to carry the protest on foot.
“We took in the considerations of the Haryana government and decided to protest on foot. Despite that, they have been taking action against us and have stuck notices in Punjab. We have nothing except for our flags and our bags. When we reach Delhi, if we are asked to take permission from the government, we will do that. We will stick to our plan and we will see what the government will do with us,” Kaur said speaking to ANI.
Talking about the demands of the farmers, she stated that the main demand was that of the Minimum Support Price. (MSP)
“We have 12 demands and our main demand is that of the MSP. The Punjab government said they would do it but even after waiting for one month, they didn’t and we protested against it. We are ready to talk to them but they have not asked us anything..We are not begging, we are just asking something for what we do. Where are we at fault?” she added.
The protest, led by the Bhartiya Kisan Parishad (BKP) in collaboration with other farmer organisations, seeks compensation and benefits linked to agricultural reforms, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Visuals also emerged showing police barricades on the Shambhu border. The protest has also caused a traffic jam on the expressway from Greater Noida to Noida causing difficulties to the vehicles. Traffic police personnel have been deployed at the spot to handle the situation.