Farmer leaders agree to resume talks with Central Government as Punjab-Haryana border remains tense
AMN / WEB DESK
A meeting between farmer leaders and Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai will be held in Chandigarh on Thursday evening, according to sources, even as protesting farmers continued to stay put at the two borders of Punjab and Haryana while security personnel fired some tear gas shells on the protesters at the Shambhu border near Ambala.
The Punjab Government is facilitating farmer leaders’ meeting with the Central ministers through video-conferencing, the sources said, adding that farmers want written assurances from the government and it’s being discussed.
The farmers’ agitation entered its second day on Wednesday with chaotic scenes witnessed at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border where police lobbed tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
The local police stood their ground and continued to stop the protesting farmers from heading towards the national capital.
Farmer leaders, however, reiterated their willingness to keep the door open for talks with the central government to resolve the issues plaguing them.
“The meeting with the Centre will be held at 5pm tomorrow,” says Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee General Secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher at Rajpura bypass in Punjab.
Visuals shared by news agencies showed scores of farmers queuing up at GT road towards the Shambhu border.
A farmer union in Punjab, BKU Ekta Ugrahan, also announced to sit on railway tracks from 12 noon to 4 pm as a mark of protest against how the protesting farmers were treated at the Shambhu border.
Tear gas and water cannons were put to use to disperse the farmers at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders where they tried to push away the barricades put in place by the police.
n Delhi, traffic movement continued to remain affected across the city at many places as diversions have been put in place at multiple border points, while movement of vehicles has been completely restricted at the Singhu and Tikri borders.