Due to farmer protests, 50 pc less Diesel, 20 pc less Gas dispatched to Punjab: Sources

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing farmers' protest leading to chaotic scenes at the Punjab-Haryana border, fifty per cent less diesel and twenty per cent less gas were able to be dispatched to Punjab, government sources told ANI on Tuesday.

The farmers have put forth 12 demands before the central government for which they're marching to Delhi. The protest this time has been called by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, led by farmer union leaders Jagjeet Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher.

According to the protesting farmers, the centre promised them better crop prices, after which they ended the 2021 protest. They are demanding to enact a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission report.

They are also demanding a complete debt waiver and a scheme to provide pensions to farmers and farm labourers.

The farmers have also urged to scrap the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 and are demanding to reintroduce the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, ensuring consent from farmers and compensation at 4 times the collector rate.

Further, they are demanding to punish those involved in the Lakhimpur Kheri killings.

An appeal to provide 200 days of employment per year and a daily wage of Rs 700 under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) linking it with farming has also been made by the farmers.

Also, they have demanded compensation to the families of farmers who died during the protests in 2021 and a job for any family member has been put in place.

Meanwhile, scenes of chaos filled the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana as the police tried to stop the protestors from entering the national capital. Visuals from the border showed farmers running towards nearby farmland on the sides of the road as police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protestors.

Concrete slabs, iron nails, barricades, barbed wires, police and paramilitary personnel were deployed by the police at several parts of the border.

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said that demands for law on MSP, implementation of Swaminathan Committee report and debt waiver concern all farmers and they support farmers who have embarked on 'Delhi Chalo' protest over these issues.

"MSP guarantee law and Swaminathan Committee report, Electricity amendment bill and debt waiver are the issues of the farmers across the country. There are several farmer unions and they have different issues. If the government creates a problem for these farmers who are marching towards Delhi, we are not far from them. We are in support of them," Tikait told ANI.