200 farmers are allowed to protest against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws as the Monsoon session of Parliament was underway. The Delhi police have arranged watertight security around central Delhi and kept a tight vigil on the movement of vehicles.
Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has permitted demonstration by a maximum of 200 farmers at Jantar Mantar, a few metres from the Parliament Complex. The protest can be extended till 9 August.
An official report said that 200 farmers will be wearing identification badges and carrying flags of their unions, travelled to Jantar Mantar from their Singhu border protest site in buses with a police escort.
The protest has started at 12.25 PM. Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka said to a leading daily that they have been stopped in three places en route and their Aadhaar cards were checked. After reaching Jantar Mantar farmers raised slogans, demanding the government scrap the three laws. The protesting farmers have been restricted to a small section of Jantar Mantar with police putting up barricades on both sides.
Sources said that the protest would continue till of the Monsoon session of Parliament on August 13.
This is the first time since the violence in the national capital during a tractor rally on January 26 that the authorities have granted permission to the protesting farmer unions to hold a demonstration in the city.
According to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority order, gathering for protests is currently not allowed in the national capital because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at three Delhi border points — Singh, Tikri and Ghazipur — against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.
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