200 farmers reach Jantar Mantar for protest against farm laws amid House session

A group of 200 farmers reached Jantar Mantar in central Delhi on Thursday to protest against the Centres three contentious farm laws as the Monsoon session of Parliament was underwayPolice threw a ring of security around central Delhi and kept a tight vigil on the movement of vehiclesDelhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has given special permission for demonstration by a maximum of 200 farmers at Jantar Mantar a few metres from the Parliament Complex till August 9The 200 farmers wearing identification badges and carrying flags of their unions travelled to Jantar Mantar from their Singhu border protest site in buses with a police escortThe protest was to start at 11 am but the farmers reached the venue only by 1225 pmFarmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka said police stopped them at three places en route and their Aadhaar cards were checkedUpon reaching Jantar Mantar farmers raised slogans demanding the government scrap the three lawsThe protesting farmers have been restricted to a small section of Jantar Mantar with police putting up barricades on both sidesSeveral teams of the Delhi Police manned the roads leading to the protest venue while personnel of the Rapid Action Force a specialized unit of the Central Reserve Police Force stood guard at the site carrying riot shields and batonsA water cannon and metaldetector gates have been deployed at the site Two tankers carrying drinking water have also been stationed thereThe Samyukt Kisan Morcha SKM an umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the protest against the three farm laws has been asked to give an undertaking that all Covid19 norms would be followed and the stir would be peacefulAlthough the SKM had said that their protest at Jantar Mantar would continue till the end of the Monsoon session of Parliament on August 13 the lieutenant governor has given permission for protest till August 9This is the first time since the violence in the national capital during a tractor rally on January 26 that the authorities have granted permission to the protesting farmer unions to hold a demonstration in the cityGathering for protests is currently not allowed in the national capital in view of the Covid19 pandemic according to an order by the Delhi Disaster Management AuthorityThousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at three Delhi border points Singhu Tikri and Ghazipur against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system leaving them at the mercy of big corporationsOver 10 rounds of talks with the government which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms have failed to break the deadlock between the two sidesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever