Ambala, Dec 4 (PTI) The district administration of Ambala in Haryana Wednesday asked Punjab farmers to reconsider their proposed march to Delhi on December 6 and told them to contemplate further action only after getting permission from the Delhi Police.
The Ambala administration has imposed Section 163 of BNSS restricting assembly of five or more persons in the district and has issued notices at the protest site near Shambhu border. Notices have also been sent to the homes of two farmer leaders in Punjab including Sarwan Singh Pandher.
Protesting farmers had earlier attempted to march towards Delhi on February 13 and February 21 but they were stopped by security forces deployed at the borders. The farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points since then.
A communication to the farmer leaders by Ambala Deputy Commissioner Parth Gupta said, "...you are appealed to reconsider the protest and going to Delhi on foot and take further action only after getting permission from Delhi Police."
The deputy commissioner (DC) wrote that he has come to know through the press conferences organized by the farmers' leaders in the last few days that they have called for a march to Delhi from Shambhu border in the form of groups from December 6.
"It is mandatory for you to take permission from Delhi Police to hold demonstration/agitation in Delhi on the above mentioned subject. Therefore, please inform this office about the permission obtained by you," read the DC's notice.
He also referred to the Supreme Court's July order directing the concerned parties to maintain status quo at the Shambhu border.
The apex court had later constituted a committee headed by former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Nawab Singh to amicably resolve the grievances of protesting farmers at the Shambhu border.
In the notice, the DC mentioned that according to Section 69 of the Haryana Police Act 2007, the competent police officer can give appropriate instructions regarding conducting meetings and processions in a public place.
Permission for any such meeting or procession will be given only after the police officer is satisfied. If there is a possibility of disturbing the peace due to any gathering or procession, then for public interest the concerned police officer can ban the said gathering, procession, agitation or protest, he said.
Therefore, the district administration has also imposed Section 163 of the BNSS (earlier Section 144 of CrPC) in Ambala district, the notice said.
"If you have to hold any protest in the form of a procession, then permission should be obtained from this office through proper channel," the DC mentioned in the notice.
"Therefore, keeping in view the above facts, you are appealed to reconsider the protest and going to Delhi on foot and take further action only after getting permission from Delhi Police. Otherwise, postpone this programme so that peace in the district is maintained and law and order situation should not arise in any way. Maintaining law and order is everyone's collective responsibility," he said.
Farmer leader Pandher said a delegation of farmers had met the Ambala's superintendent of police on Monday and informed the police administration about their march towards Delhi on December 6 on foot.
Pandher said the delegation had assured the police that the march would be peaceful and traffic along the route would not be blocked.
"We have said that we would go in 'jathas' (groups) and go peacefully. Initially, first jatha will go. There will be no traffic blockade. We will halt on the roads at night," Pandher said.
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Panipat on December 9 for an event, Pandher said the farmers have already made it clear their plan is to head to Delhi and they have no plan to protest or disrupt any event which may fall enroute.
Meanwhile, SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal continues his fast unto death at the Khanauri border point.
Besides a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) for crops, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, and no hike in electricity tariff. They are also demanding "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
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