Farmers’ Delhi Chalo march: Protesters throw police barricade down from flyover at Punjab-Haryana border | Watch

Farmers attempted to break multi-layered barricades with their tractors and hand weapons on Tuesday amid a protest march. Visuals shared online showed the agitators tossing barricades down from a flyover at Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border as police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. Some were also seen running towards nearby farmland on the sides of the road.

Scenes of chaos filled the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana on Tuesday afternoon as the police tried to stop the protestors from entering the national capital. The police had first resorted to lobbing tear gas shells when a few youths broke an iron barricade and tried to throw it off the Ghaggar river bridge.

Security personnel said they had also resorted to lobbing tear gas — including through drones — and wielding water cannons after the protesters pelted the Haryana police with stones. Concrete slabs, iron nails, barricades, barbed wires, police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed by the police at several points along the border.

Several farmers were also detained by Haryana police after protesters attempted to break the multi-layered barricades. Demonstrators claim that a farmer was injured in the tear gas shell firing at the Data Singhwala-Khanauri border.

The protest has been called by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee with more than 200 farmer unions reportedly heading towards Delhi to press their demands. The farmers have put forth 12 demands before the central government — including a law on minimum support price for crops and loan waivers. The latest agitation comes just months before the next general election.

Meanwhile Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda urged the protesting farmer groups to have a structured discussion with the government. The senior politician insisted that a law guaranteeing Minimum Support Price on crops cannot be brought in a hurry without consulting all stakeholders.

(With inputs from agencies)