Dilli Chalo anniversary: Farmers gather in Mohali ahead of moving to Chandigarh to press for demands

Heavy security arrangements are in place to prevent the farmers from entering Chandigarh. The police had also diverted the routes in Phase XI which farmers are expected to take to enter Chandigarh.

Officers advised the public not to enter Mohali from the Sector 48 side as the road was closed due to the farmers’ protest.

Major demands of the protesters include enacting a law for MSP, Rs 10,000 pension for farmers above the age of 60 and scrapping of agricultural loans.

BKU (Lakhowal) leader Harinder Singh Lakhowal said the protesting farm unions shall hold a meeting at 4 pm Sunday and chalk out further plans. He added that they have come to hold the protest for three days to press their demands with the Union and state governments.

Listing out the demands, Lakhowal said that when they ended the protest at the Singhu border three years ago it was promised that a law would be enacted on the Minimum Support Price (MSP), but it has not been done so far.

He added that the farmers did not get justice in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Four protesting farmers and a journalist were killed in the incident in October 2021.

Speaking further, Lakhowal said they will also take up the issue of stubble burning with the state government. “Farmers did not want to burn paddy stubble, but they have to do so as there are no alternatives. We urge the government to nurture an industry that can consume paddy stubble. We also demand quashing of the FIRs against farmers,” he stated.

The farmers sat on protest on the road leading from Phase XI to Chandigarh.

Rulda Singh Mansa, another farmer leader, said that at least 3,000 tractor-trailers shall arrive in Mohali with around ten people in each. “We will be here till our demands are met. The senior leadership will soon decide the further course of action,” he said, adding that the administration was yet to establish any contact with them.