Patna, Dec 29 Hundreds of farmers reached Patna on Tuesday and assembled near the Gandhi Maidan before they took out a mega march to the Bihar Raj Bhawan.
District administration had placed barricades at Gandhi Maidan to prevent those already camping there for the last few days. Now with the added reinforcement more barricades was set up to block the farmers march from the historic ground.
However, the farmers already huge in numbers, quickly gained strength with every passing minute and broke the barricades between Gandhi Maidan and Dak Banglow Chowk.
Police had to resort to baton-charge the farmers on Frazer Road in a bid to disperse them from the area.
The tussle between farmers and police has been underway at several places apart from the city's famous Dak Banglow Chowk.
The Patna administration has deployed a large number of police personnel at every road connecting Gandhi Maidan to Raj Bhawan, including the Bailey road to prevent their march.
Farmers under the umbrella of Kisan MahaSabha came out on streets to protest against three contentious farm laws passed in Parliament by the Narendra Modi government in September.
This is the first ever major agitation started by a non-political unit apart from some supporters of left parties in Bihar. Earlier, RJD, JAP and Congress parties have taken out marches in solidarity with the farmers.
"We are only demanding a roll back of the three farm laws passed in Parliament. The NDA government is trying to impose these legislation on farmers. We will not allow that to happen. We will not withdraw the agitation until the Centre rolls back these three laws," said one of the farmers Sudhakar Mahto, who came from Darbhanga last night.
"We are standing by the farmers agitating at the borders of Delhi. Centre wants to grab lands through these farm laws to benefit corporates.
"We have no faith on the Centre's promises. The intention of the Modi government is not right. They want monopoly in the agriculture sector as well after privatising the Indian Railways, Telecom sector, Aviation sector and other. We will not let that happen," Ramesh Yadav, a farmer from Nalanda district said.
"It is not a fight for the rights of farmers only but it is a fight for every poor person, salaried class, middle class, small traders and businessmen. If the NDA government is successful in this, we will face huge consequences in terms of price hike of every commodity and it will subsequently affect other sectors.
"For example, we are buying wheat at the rate of Rs 35 per kg, which will then be available at Rs 80 to 100 per kg and the price will be controlled by corporates," said Rahul Kumar, another protester of Sampatchak in Patna district.
( With inputs from IANS )
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