Farmers to block traffic tomorrow in Haryana, police gears up

Farmers have threatened to block the traffic for three hours tomorrow on all national highways in Haryana as part of their protest against the death of five cultivators in police firing in Madhya Pradesh and failure of the Centre to provide relief to the farming community.
As part of their nationwide call, farmers owing allegiance to different unions will block traffic for three hours tomorrow on all national highways across Haryana, a senior BKU leader said today.
In view of their protest, the Haryana police too has taken necessary steps to deal with the situation.
Haryana Director General of Police, B S Sandhu said that all necessary security measures have been taken in the state in view of the tomorrow's protest.

Four companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been deployed in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sonepat and Jind, he said.
"At a meeting in the national capital on Saturday, the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, a group of 62 farmers' unions, announced that it will block traffic for three hours on all national highways across the country," senior Bharatiya Kisan Union leader from Haryana, Gurnam Singh said.

He said the decision to block traffic was taken to protest the killing of five famrers in firing incident in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, and the alleged failure of the BJP government to provide relief to the farming community.

"From June 11 to June 15, the farmers in Haryana and at other places in the country held peaceful demonstrations. But tomorrow, there will be a pan-India blockade of highways," he said.
In Haryana, he said, the farmers would be holding protests at Ambala, Rohtak, Sonepat, Hisar, Sirsa, Jind, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri and other places.
Singh said it was unfortunate that the BJP had ignored its election promise of implementing the Swaminathan Commission report.
"Swaminathan Commission report should be implemented without any delay and all kind of loans of farmers across the country should be waived," Singh said.
The National Commission on Farmers, headed by eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, in its final report had said: "The Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.