AROUND a thousand Punjab farmers on their way to Delhi to take part in the Kisan Mahapanchayat to protest against the proposed India-US trade deal were stopped at the Shambhu border on Tuesday as Haryana Police erected barricades and placed cement blocks at the entry point to the neighbouring State. Later in the day, Haryana Agriculture Minister Shyam Singh Rana and Ambala Deputy Commissioner Ajay SinghTomer met the Punjab farmers, received a memorandum from them and promised to fulfill their demands. The farmers said they will chart their next course of action soon. Aday-long Kisan Mahapanchayat is being organised at Kisan Ghat in Delhi under the banner of ‘Desh Bachao Morcha’ on Tuesday, to protest against the proposed India-US trade deal. Farmer leaders had earlier said that participants from several places, including from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, would take part in the Mahapanchayat.

 

As part of the plan, around a thousand farmers from Punjab, carrying flags of their respective organisations, arrived at the Shambhu border on Tuesday to proceed towards Delhi in buses. The farmers’ convoy had spent Monday night at the sarai (pilgrims’ inn) of Gurudwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib and departed in the morning. From the gurudwara, they reached Madhopur near Sirhind on GT Road, and then proceeded towards Shambhu, where they were stopped from proceeding further. Heavy police deployment was made at the entry point to Haryana, with chained barricades and cement blocks erected on the bridge over Ghaggar river and water cannon vehicles on standby. Authorities in the adjacent Ambala had clamped prohibitory orders in the district. Ambala Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Shekhwat and other police officials were camping at the spot to monitor the situation. Security was also tightened along key national highway stretches, while farmer leaders said scores of farmers were stopped at the Khanauri border, Shahabad in Kurukshetra and Karnal as well. In Kurukshetra, farmers claimed that they were stopped near Jyotisar.