Farmers’ ’Dilli Chalo’ march: Police use tear gas to disperse farmers, say ’came as a mob’ | Watch video

As the farmer protest group announced the resumption of the Delhi Chalo march, Delhi Police on Sunday used tear gas to disperse farmers at the Sambhu border between Haryana and Punjab.

Police said that the farmers did not have permission to move towards Delhi.

As reported by ANI, a Haryana police official deployed at the site of protest said, “We will first identify them (farmers) and then we can allow them to go ahead. We have a list of the names of 101 farmers, and they are not those people – they are not letting us identify them – they are moving ahead as a mob.”

Two days ago, police used tear gas to stop farmers from proceeding towards Delhi at the Shambhu border.

Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said, “The ‘Jattha’ of our 101 farmers and labourers have reached. We have already issued the list, if they (the police) have decided that they will check the IDs first before allowing us to move, they should tell us we will cooperate with that. We have shown the discipline and will continue to be so… They are using more tear gas today, as the wind direction is towards us. We are ready for any kind of sacrifice… It’s the PM who has the solution for our problems, either he does it or let us march to Delhi.”

A protesting farmer at the Shambhu border claimed the police had the wrong list. He said they requested the police to allow them to move ahead, as they have identity cards.

“The list they (police) have is wrong – the list doesn’t have the name of farmers coming here. We have asked them (the police) to let us move ahead and we will show them our identity cards. Police are saying that we (farmers) don’t have permission to move ahead – so why do we have to prove our identity?… We are trying to sort things out through dialogues – but anyhow we will move ahead. I told them (police) to go to Haryana as this is the land of Punjab.”

Moreover, the farmer representative Sarwan Singh Pandher alleged that famrers are treated with “brutality”.

Meanwhile, Samyukta Kisan Morcha SKM (U) United Farmers Front member from Tamil Nadu, Ayyakannu, also expressed frustration that despite thousands of farmers protesting in Delhi last year for minimum support price (MSP) and loan rights, the central government has yet to take action.

(This is a developing story)