LIVE: SC to hear plea on removal of farmers from Delhi borders on Dec 16

The hunger strike between 8 am to 5 pm on Monday is part of the farmers' plan to intensify their agitation from Dec 14. Stay tuned for more updates

3:56 PM

Prominent people who're protesting farm laws, doing it just for the sake of opposing laws: Ravi Shankar Prasad

3:50 PM

Security up in Gurugram as farmers stopped on Haryana-Rajasthan border

Security in Gurugram district was beefed up on Sunday with the deployment of more police, rapid action force and even paramilitary personnel even as hundreds of farmers from Rajasthan were stopped on the Haryana-Rajasthan border the previous night. The protesting farmers staged a dharna at the interstate border point on the service lane of the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway after police stopped them from proceeding further on Saturday night. They are now awaiting more farmers to join in.

 

Sources said that more police personnel than farmers were seen deployed at the Rajasthan-Haryana border falling in Gurugram district on Sunday.

 

"Thousands of police personnel along with water cannons, cranes/JCBs and anti-riot equipment have been stationed across the National Highway to stop farmers from entering Gurugram area," said Nikita Gahlaut, DCP (Manesar).

 

As of Saturday evening, two groups of farmers from Rajasthan, with more expected to join them on Sunday, turned up to participate in the call for "blocking" the NH-48. As the protestors sat on a dharna on the NH's service lane, they shouted slogans to demand the repeal of the three new central farm laws.

3:12 PM

Farmers' protest LIVE: Security personnel put barricades near Jaisinghpur-Khera border

2:42 PM

Normal traffic resumes at Chilla border, farmers say protest still on at Noida border

Protesting farmers on Sunday vacated carriageways on the Noida-Delhi Link Road via Chilla following a late night meeting with Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Narendra Tomar. Normal traffic resumed between Noida and Delhi via Chilla border after farmers vacated the spot they had been occupying since December 1 for their sit-in demonstration. The movement on the DND and the Kalindi Kunj routes, both connecting Delhi and Noida, was also normal, they said.

 

The protest, however, continued at the border with some Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) members, including their chief Thakur Bhanu Pratap Singh, staying put at Chilla. The farmers had vacated the carriageways around Saturday midnight after a meeting with Defence Minister Singh and Agriculture Minister Tomar, a BKU (Bhanu) office-bearer said.

 

Rajnath ji heard our demands and agreed to take the discussions further and resolve the issues. We were convinced and decided to vacate the road. However, this does not mean that our protest is over, Satish Tomar, a senior IT Cell member of the BKU (Bhanu), told PTI.

2:18 PM

Farmers' union leaders who are adamant about agitation will become irrelevant: Som Parkash

2:17 PM

Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Som Parkash meet Amit Shah at latter's residence

2:01 PM

Breaking through checkpoint near Kundli border, another batch of Punjab farmers reaches Delhi

Thousands of farmers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), led by its Punjab President Satnam Singh Pannu and General Secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, reached Delhi on Sunday, breaking through a checkpoint near Kundli border. The convoy was so large that it could not be controlled even with eight loudspeaker vehicles of Delhi Police, which also had to remove a second checkpoint one kilometer behind the Kundli border.

 

"A convoy of labourers and farmers broke through the first check post at Kundli border. Police used heavy tippers, trucks and other means to strengthen the second checkpoint," the release stated. The KMSC also alleged that police misled the convoy at several places. "Thousands of vehicles remained stuck in traffic jams throughout the night and reached Delhi today." 

Later addressing the media, the leaders said that that the Prime Minister's intention is to bring corporate houses into the agricultural sector, which is already private. "If the morcha has to be held till 2024 to repeal the agriculture laws, so be it. The agitation against the "anti-agriculture" laws will be intensified," said Pandher, adding that the Rail Roko morcha at Jandiala Guru town in Punjab has entered its 81st day.

 

Another batch of farmers from Gurdaspur would leave for Delhi on December 25, as per the committee.

1:52 PM

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor joins farmers' protest at Jantar

1:15 PM

Punjab DIG tenders resignation in view of farmers protest

Punjab DIG (Prisons) Lakhminder Singh Jakhar writes to State Principal Secy Home requesting 'to be treated as prematurely retired from service'; says "I'd like to inform you of my considered decision to stand with my farmer brothers who're peacefully protesting against Farm laws."

12:52 PM

Homemaker, farmworker and now protester, hundreds of women join farmers' agitation

They have long juggled the demands of field and family, making sure both are tended to, and now hundreds of women from Haryana and Punjab have added another dimension to their busy lives the protest grounds at the various gateways into Delhi. As their husbands, sons and brothers leave home to demand a rollback of the Centre's new agri laws, many women are joining them too, making the trip from village towards the national capital even if for only a few days at a time.

For these women, who describe themselves as homemakers, farmworkers and protesters all rolled into one, any suggestion that farmers are about being alpha males because it requires physical labour is met with scorn. "The profession of farming is not defined by gender. Our fields don't produce crops differently if tended by women and men. Many male farmers are here protesting. Why should we sit at home?" asked 53-year-old Mandeep Kaur, a farmer from Ludhiana who refuses to be stereotyped into any one role.

12:40 PM

Protesting farmers at Rajasthan-Haryana border to begin march towards Delhi

Amid the ongoing demonstration against the farm laws, farmers protesting near Jaisinghpur Kheda area in Rewari at the Rajasthan-Haryana border are waiting for more farmers to arrive, for their march towards Delhi.

"Today more people and unions are coming from Rajashatan at the border area. After gathering the crowd we will move towards Delhi. Among other things, we want the three laws to be repealed. We are standing with the farmers of Punjab and Haryana. We don't have any separate demands. We are with our union leaders," said Banwari Lal from Jaipur, who is a Convener of Rashtriya Kisan Mahasabha.

On the Centre's stand that they will not repeal the law, he said, "So what! We never told that we will head back if they will not repeal the law. We will continue our march towards Delhi."

12:17 PM

11:55 AM

Normal traffic resumes at Chilla border, farmers say protest still on at Noida border

Protesting farmers on Sunday vacated carriageways on the Noida-Delhi Link Road via Chilla following a late night meeting with Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Narendra Tomar. Officals said normal traffic resumed between Noida and Delhi via Chilla border after farmers vacated the spot they had been occupying since December 1 for their sit-in demonstration.

The movement on the DND and the Kalindi Kunj routes, both connecting Delhi and Noida, was also normal, they said. The protest, however, continued at the border with some Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) members, including their chief Thakur Bhanu Pratap Singh, staying put at Chilla. The farmers had vacated the carriageways around Saturday midnight after a meeting with Defence Minister Singh and Agriculture Minister Tomar, a BKU (Bhanu) office-bearer said.

11:47 AM

Modi govt brought in new farm laws to double farmers' income, says Anurag Thakur

With continued farmers protests regarding the Central farm laws, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Anurag Thakur has said that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought three laws to double the income of farmers and that the present government paid Minimum Support Price (MSP), double than what was paid by the previous UPA government.

"The three agriculture laws were brought so as to double the income of farmers. In the last six years, Modi government paid more than double MSP, then what was paid in the UPA time. During 2009-2014, the UPA government paid Rs 3,75,000 crore whereas the NDA government has paid over Rs 8,00,000 crore," the Minister said while speaking to ANI.

"The farmers have been given the freedom to sell their products to anybody in the country at any cost. They will own their farmlands, only their crops will be on contracts. The government has made this arrangement too. The Centre is working hard to double their income by 2022," he added.

11:25 AM