Farmers protesting the centre’s new agricultural laws are likely to reach an understanding with the government in the next 24 to 48 hours, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said on Saturday.
“We fully trust the farmers of India, they are peace-loving & they are our ‘annadatas’. We respect them & we have the confidence that they will not allow Maoist and Naxal forces to influence the people across the country”- Union minister Piyush Goyal
Meanwhile, farmer leaders on Saturday said they have decided to intensify their agitation against the controversial agriculture laws and that their union leaders will sit on a hunger strike on December 14.
“If the government wants to hold talks, we are ready, but our main demand will remain the scrapping of the three laws. We will move onto our other demands only after that,” farmer leader Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu told reporters at Singhu border. He also announced that thousands of farmers will start their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march from Rajasthan’s Shahjahanpur through the Jaipur-Delhi Highway at 11 am on Sunday.
Police stopped protesting farmers from blocking major highways and taking over more roads into the capital as a two-week agitation against agri-marketing reform laws intensified.
Police deployed in large numbers stopped groups of hundreds of farmers from blocking the main highways from Delhi to Agra and Jaipur.
Some farmers were detained on the expressway to Agra while other groups took over at least two toll booths and let cars and trucks pass without paying.