At least 70 farmers traveling to participate in the 'Delhi Chalo' protest march from Karnataka were detained by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Bhopal railway station in Madhya Pradesh during the early hours of Monday, as reported by PTI.
Eyewitnesses revealed that the farmers expressed their discontent and raised slogans after being forced to disembark from a Delhi-bound Sampark Kranti Express train and subsequently prohibited from continuing their journey. The GRP official stated that the farmers were deboarded and handed over to district authorities.
Parshuram Etingudd, a farmers' leader and Secretary of Dharwad Zila, informed PTI that 70 farmers were detained at Bhopal railway station around 3 am. Subsequently, they staged a protest. The group was going to Delhi to participate in the ongoing farmers' agitation.
Etingudd further claimed that one of the female protestors sustained injuries during the police action. He alleged that the detained group was kept outside the railway station premises and deprived of basic facilities such as hot water, particularly for those with medical concerns.
Several farmer associations, predominantly from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab, have announced a march on February 13 to advocate for a law ensuring Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their agricultural produce, a condition they had set forth when agreeing to withdraw their protest in 2021.