“Made elaborate arrangements”: Delhi police as farmer groups to protest at Ramlila Maidan today
New Delhi [India], March 14 (ANI): Delhi police said on Thursday that they have made elaborate arrangements to ensure law and order are maintained as farmers will attend a Mahapanchayat at Ramlila Maidan in the city on Thursday.
Speaking with ANI, DCP Central M Harsha Vardhan said, “We have made elaborate arrangements to ensure that law & order are maintained. The organising group has also given a written undertaking in which there are various points relating to maintaining law & order…A lot of farmers have come, & it is an ongoing process.”
“But we are hopeful that it will be within the limits of what the SKM leaders have told us. Sufficient forces are available with us. We are trying to ensure that without any law & order disturbance and with minimal traffic disturbance, everything happens…,” DCP Vardhan said.
On the call of Samyukt Kisan Morcha, farmers will hold a foot march from Uchana to Jind and then attend a Mahapanchayat at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi today.
Farmers said that they would work to show strength to the government, adding, “We would go on foot from Uchana to Jind and from Jind to Delhi by train.”
Giving a call to march to Delhi, the farmers have been massing and camping at multiple points in areas bordering the national capital since February 13 along with their tractors, mini-vans, and pickup trucks, demanding, among others, a law guaranteeing MSP (minimum support price) and the withdrawal of police cases against farmers during earlier protests.
The protesting farmers have been camping at two border points in Punjab and Haryana to press the Centre to accept their demands.
During the last round of talks, which ended past midnight on February 18, the panel of three Union ministers made an offer to buy five crops — moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize, and cotton — from farmers at MSP for five years through central agencies.
However, the protesting farmers turned down the demand and returned to their protest sites.
