Mohali: Punjab Police on Wednesday demolished the tents and temporary structures of protesting farmers at Shambhu border using bulldozers. Farmers were sleeping here for 13 months. Several leaders including farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal who is on an indefinite fast have also been detained reportedly. The farmers are on a protest over various demands.
Farmer leaders were detained in Mohali while they were returning to the Shambhu protest site after a meeting with the delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The next meeting between the government and the farmers has been scheduled for May 4.
Police Reaction On Demolition
Speaking on the bulldozing of the tents set-up by protesting farmers, Punjab’s DIG said, “The people of Punjab were facing significant inconvenience and suffering. We have been telling them that enough is enough, and it’s time to end this protest as it has become unlawful. The operation is ongoing, and several structures they had built are being demolished. Around 40-50 people have been detained, and many of them are requesting to return home. We will arrange transportation and send them back,” said Punjab DIG Harmanbir Singh Gill
Why are farmers protesting?
The agitating farmers have been parked at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders since February 13 2024 after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.
Besides the legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are seeking a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who lost their lives during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
