Mukesh Tandon and Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Sonepat/Jhajjar, April 25

With Haryana Chief Minister authorising Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to take a call about the imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC to avoid public gatherings in their respective districts in view of the Covid pandemic, the development has put a question mark over the continuation of the farmers’ agitation with thousands of farmers camping at Singhu and Tikri borders for the past five months.

Sonepat DC Ashok Bansal said the prohibitory orders would be enforced on getting the directives from the government in black and white. “Thereafter, no one will be spared whether they are farmers or any others if they are found violating Section 144,” he added.

While Jhajjar DC Jitendra Dahiya said Section 144 was already in force in the district following the farmers’ agitation and the new directives were for crowded places. He avoided answering the question about whether the prohibitory orders applied to protesting farmers at Tikri border or not.

Meanwhile, Pargat Singh, a BKU (Rajewal) leader while reacting to the CM directives about Section 144, said it might be a new plot of the state government to spoil their agitation which was getting stronger with every passing day.

“We are not afraid of such orders and will not move back without getting the three farm laws repealed. The government is now under pressure and wants to instigate us to indulge in violence, but we will not do so even when the police cane charge us. Our protest will continue in a peaceful manner until the demands are met,” Singh added.