Chandigarh: A group of farmers agitating against the three central farm laws were on Tuesday tear-gassed and stopped from proceeding towards the residences of Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala in Sirsa. The police lobbed tear gas shells and also used water cannons against the farmers near the Ram Leela Ground in Sirsa city when they tried to cross police barricades on a road leading to the Chautala clan houses barely 200 meters away.
Unable to proceed to Chautalas’ houses, the farmers sat on a dharna on Sirsa-Barnala Highway in the state and accused the two state government ministers from the Chautala clan of sullying the image of farmers ‘messiah’ Devi Lal. Before starting their march towards Chautalas’ houses, the farmers belonging to 17 different peasants’ organisations had held a mahapanchayat’ at the Ram Leela Ground under the aegis of Haryana Kisan Manch to protest the three farm reform laws.
Prominent among those who took part in the meeting included Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union chief Gurnam Singh, Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav and state Kisan Manch president Prahalad Singh. After the meeting, several farmers from the 17 outfits headed towards the Chautalas’ residences but their bid was foiled by police.
Giving vent to his anger against the uncle-nephew duo from the Chautala clan, Bhartiya Kisan Union chief Gurnam Singh lamented that while late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal always fought for farmers, both Ranjit Chautala and his nephew Dushyant Chautala were busy “enjoying pleasures of power”, “ignoring” farmers’ interests. “Both Dushyant and Ranjit Chautala are bringing disrespect to the name of farmers ‘massiah’ Devi Lal by misusing his name in the garb of the peasantry,” said Haryana Kisan Manch president Prahalad Singh.
Asserting that the Centre’s farm laws were anti-farmer, Yogendra Yadav demanded resignations of the uncle-nephew duo from the state government. Gurnam Singh said a meeting of representatives of various farmers’ organisations will soon be convened to chalk out a programme to intensify the farmers’ agitation all over the country.
Meanwhile, MLA Abhay Singh Chautala condemned the use of tear gas shells and water cannons on protesting farmers by the police.
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