The Delhi-Chandigarh Highway near Haryana's Kurukshetra has been blocked by a group of farmers protesting over delay in paddy procurement. They said the protests will go on until the government buys their produce, adding that they will take the protests to the homes of MLAs and MPs.
The farmers have said that the government has delayed the procurement for close to a month and their produce which is lying open, has been spoiled by rains over the past two days.
Pawan Sirsla, a farmer said, "The rice has been lying in mandis for a month now. We have lost 20 per cent of our produce. Who will compensate us for that? Despite the Chief Minister's instruction, not one grain has been bought. They give us false promises."
Amreek Singh, Kisan Mahamantri, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) said, "The government said that it will buy the produce on 25th, then they said they will buy it on the 1st and the again pushed it to 11th. It rained last night spoiling the produce. The government is responsible for this. We want that they buy it soonest. We will stay put till they buy the produce. If our demands are not met today, then we will gherao the MP, MLAs homes with our produce and will not get up till the sale of our crop begins."
Huge rows of traffic were seen on the highway and a group of farmers atop vehicles were also spotted. The farmers had also blocked Delhi-Amritsar National Highway yesterday over the detention of BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni.
