Police in India fired tear gas on Tuesday at hundreds of farmers and their supporters during a protest march towards New Delhi to pressure the government to honour a promise it made in 2021 to pay more for crops.
The march is the latest in a series of similar protests which began more than two years ago and comes months ahead of national elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third term, with farmers forming an influential voting bloc.
Farmers had headed south for Delhi a day after talks between farm unions and ministers failed to secure commitments to provide minimum prices for a range of crops.
“The government has not been able to make a strong decision on anything … We thought that giving time is not suitable now,” Sarwan Singh Pandher, the general secretary of Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), told ANI news agency.
Hundreds of farmers and their supporters were seen mobilising on foot and in large convoys of tractors in many parts of the northern breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana.
At midday (0630 GMT), police fired multiple tear gas rounds to disperse the marchers at Shambhu, a border crossing between Punjab and Haryana, about 230 km (143 miles) north of Delhi, where many had joined the march.
Footage showed protesters trying to break through the barricades by lifting away cement blocks placed there to halt the march, as police used drones to fire tear gas rounds into the crowd. Some protesters were also detainedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-y9P1SacE
Source – Reuters
