The Supreme Court, a day later, demanded that the police chiefs of Punjab and Haryana state come up with a plan to reopen part of the highways linking both states where farmers have been camped since February. On Tuesday (August 13, 2024), however, the farmer leaders declared that they would restart their ‘tractor-trolley-Delhi Chalo’ protests when the roads were reopened toward sitting on Delhi — New Delhi.
There has been a group of farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) – umbrella bodies spearheading farmer’s protest in Punjab – since February 13th at Shambhu-Ambala-Khanauri-Jind which is an inter-State boundary between Haryana and Punjab after being blocked from entering Haryana. They had earlier given the call for the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march to press for fulfillment of their demands, a legal guarantee for purchasing their crops at Minimum Support Price (MSP) among other demands like farm loan waiver.
“Supreme Court has ordered us to open roads and we accept its directive with pleasure.” says KMM coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher.“ Tractor trolley Delhi Chalo will restart once roads are opened. We are waiting for directions from Supreme Court as well as actions taken by state governments. Our meeting will be held within next few days where we will fix date again to start our march. We will make arrangements for restarting march when roads open.”
During Lok Sabha elections, four meetings were held between farmer leaders and Centre government but it didn’t yield anything concrete.
Farmers have been protesting on streets complaining that a law on MSP is still missing till today which is their primary concern particularly because despite several appeals Centre government does not pay any attention to their other needs. In writing, this means the price at which government promises to buy agricultural produce from farmers. Primarily, the crops that have MSPs include 22 crops such as grains, pulses and oil seeds, paddy and copra. Contrary to this claim, studies have shown that hardly any percentage of Indian farmers benefits from MSPs. However, as it turns out now, even though it had committed itself to resolve the contentious farm laws during the earlier protests, the Centre government is dragging its feet.
The Supreme Court on August 12th called upon neighbouring Punjab and Haryana for a phased reopening of Shambhu which has been barricaded for long between these two states.
