Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday asked the Central and State governments to file their affidavits based on their meetings with the farmers scheduled to be held later today. The court was hearing two pleas, one filed against the blockade of roads by the protesting farmers and the other against the obstructive measures adopted by the Haryana government to prevent them from marching towards Delhi.
An advocate representing the central government said that a meeting of farmer unions and Union Ministers has been scheduled to be held today. The next hearing in the case will be held on Tuesday (February 20), the bench said.
Advocate Uday Pratap Singh, representing the farmers, filed the petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the closure of borders and the ban on the internet in several districts. Singh said that the farmers have the right to protest peacefully. "Despite this, the Haryana government has sealed the borders with Punjab. Apart from this, Section 144 has been implemented in 15 districts," he said.
The farmers seek to march to the national capital to press the Centre to agree to their various demands including a legal guarantee on the Minimum Support Price of crops, implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report, and loan waiver among others. During their protest in 2020, farmers from different states, mainly Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, staged a sit-in at the Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders. They sat there from August 2020 to December 2021.
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