Temp Structures At Farmers’ Protest Site Damaged In Fire

Three to four temporary structures were damaged in a fire on Thursday at a protest site in Haryana’s Kundli area, where farmers are demanding the repeal of the Centre’s three agri laws.

A fire department official said the cause of the fire is being ascertained.

However, farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa alleged that there was a conspiracy and someone had deliberately started the fire.

“Some farmers saw a man running away,” he said.

A police official said that claims of the farmers are being investigated.

The fire was put out by firefighters and farmers had also assisted in the operation, he said.

Sirsa said that refrigerators, fans, cots and other articles were damaged in the fire.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping since last year at three border points of Delhi, demanding a repeal of the three farm laws enacted by the Centre in September 2020.

Farmers protesting the contentious new farm laws are ready to talk if the Centre invites them, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait had said on Sunday, maintaining that the dialogue would resume where it had ended on January 22 and the demands remain unchanged.

He said for the talks to resume, the government should invite the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body representing the protestors who are camping at the three border points of Delhi at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020.

The Centre says the new farm laws will free farmers from middlemen, giving them more options to sell their crops.

The protesting farmers, however, say the laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.