By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 21 Feb: Attempts are being made to spread the ongoing Punjab farmers’ agitation to other states as well. In Doiwala Block of Dehradun district, which is primarily an agriculture area, the farmers today staged a march in support of the agitation currently underway on the borders of Haryana. This march was today held under the theme, ‘Dilli Chalo’.
Doiwala is host to a large number of Sikh farmers and, today, they held a march on tractors and JCB machines declaring their support to the agitation along the Punjab-Haryana borders. The demands include a law for Minimum Support Price, loan waivers for all farmers and free power supply to farms, etc.
The farmers reached the Lachhiwala Toll Plaza this morning and attempted to block the Highway but were stopped by the police. As they faced resistance from the police, the farmers started raising slogans against the Union Government at the site. Later, they handed over a memorandum of demands addressed to the President through SDM, Doiwala, Aparna Dhaundiyal, who was present at the spot.
Farmers claimed that the Union Government is doing injustice to them farmers and that hundreds of them from Doiwala are staging the protest to express solidarity with the farmers in Punjab trying to reach Delhi.
Speaking to media persons present, farmer leader Surender Khalsa claimed it was ironic that the farmers who feed the entire nation by growing food, are being forced to take to the streets in support of their just demands instead of working on their respective farms. He claimed that the farmers are being tortured at the Shambhu border (Punjab-Haryana border in district Ambala). Instead of listening to them, tear gas shells are being fired to disperse them, which was unfair. Khalsa also emphasised that the farmers of Doiwala are in solidarity with the farmers who have set out to march towards Delhi. If there is a call to the farmers from Uttarakhand to reach Delhi by farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, then they would also go.
It should be noted that, today, farmers are taking out ‘Dilli Chalo’ march. Thousands of farmers from Haryana and Punjab have left for Delhi, where tear gas shells were fired at them on the Shambhu and Khanauri borders.
