Punjab farm union activists flock to Khanauri protest site for mahapanchayat

“My life is not as important as the lives of lakhs of Indian farmers, who are reeling under distress. Already over 7 lakh farmers have committed suicide owing to the distress in the farming sector,” said Dallewal while addressing a mahapanchayat at the Khanauri border site.

Farmers have been protesting, demanding a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) among other demands. They have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points after the Haryana police stopped their attempts to enter Delhi, citing a lack of necessary “permission” from central authorities.

Besides a legally guaranteed MSP, the protesting farmers have been demanding a farm loan waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.