Farmers clashed with the police in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district.
Dehradun:
Farmers protesting the central government’s agrarian reforms clashed with the police in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district on Friday, with dramatic footage showing the demonstrators running a tractor over a barricade as dozens of policemen try to hold them back.
A video posted on Twitter by news agency ANI showed a large crowd of protesters facing off with the police. A few protesters driving a green tractor charge at a barricade, running it down and forcing the policemen to finally get out of the way.
#WATCH | Protesters agitating against the new farm laws run a tractor over a police barricade in Bajpur, of the Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/aI97qNcg0U
— ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2020
The images evoked the brutish attempts by the police in Haryana last month to block the protests by farmers from reaching Delhi.
Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping out near several entry points to the capital since last month against three new laws they say will lead to the dismantling of regulated markets.
They also fear the government would stop buying wheat and rice at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
Farmer unions have demanded a total repeal of the laws and warned of a bigger agitation if their demands are not met.
Several rounds of talks between ministers and farmer leaders have failed to produce a breakthrough so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday offered to hold fresh talks to end the stalemate.
In a speech beamed live to millions of farmers across the country, he sought to allay their misgivings, insisting the laws, passed in September, would give them the freedom to sell their produce “anywhere and to anyone they like”.
While a large number of farmers protesting are from Punjab and Haryana, their cause has found support in other parts of the country including in Uttarakhand.
Sundarlal Bahuguna, leader of the state’s famous conservation campaign Chipko movement of the 70s, last week extended his support to the protesting farmers.
