Kisan protest rally: Rajnath holds meeting to discuss farmers' demands; oppn slams police action

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday held discussions with Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and a few others on how to resolve the farmers' issues and pacify them. The home minister also spoke to chief of BKU Rakesh Tikait over phone and conveyed the government's keenness to address their demands.
Later, Union minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who was also present in the meeting, met the protesting farmers.
The development comes after farmers marching towards Delhi as part of the Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) protest call over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices, were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border on Tuesday with police using water cannons to disperse them.
The issues of immediate consideration of the government include lifting the National Green Tribunal's order to ban 10-year-old tractors, uniform and complete procurement of crops, uniformity in loan waiver in the country, equal electricity tariff in the country, farmers' friendly insurance scheme and equal pension to both farmers and agricultural labourers.

Those who attended the meeting included Uttar Pradesh sugarcane minister Suresh Rana, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba, director of the Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik.
Police use tear gas, water canons to stop farmers
Earlier, clashes broke out at some places as farmers marching towards Delhi were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
The farmers, riding tractors and trolleys, broke barricades of the UP Police and then started proceeding towards the barricades put up by the Delhi Police, a senior police officer said.
Police had to use water cannons to disperse the protesters, who also indulged in sloganeering. Tear gas was also used to disperse the crowd.
The city police had on Monday imposed prohibitory orders in east and northeast Delhi, anticipating law and order problems as thousands of BKU members were on a march from Haridwar to reach the national capital.
In east Delhi, the prohibitory orders issued by deputy commissioner of police (East) Pankaj Singh under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, will be in force until October 8.
It covers Preet Vihar, Jagatpuri, Shakarpur, Madhu Vihar, Ghazipur, Mayur Vihar, Mandawli, Pandav Nagar, Kalyanpuri and New Ashok Nagar police station limits.
In northeast Delhi, the prohibitory orders were issued by deputy commissioner of police (Northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur and will be in force till October 4.
Opposition hits out at government over police action
The Congress lashed out at the Modi government over the police action against farmers marching towards Delhi, saying "the Baadshah in the Delhi Sultanate is drunk with power".
Condemning the police action, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said if the Centre can write off huge debt of a few industrialists why it could not waive the loans of farmers.
He criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that "arrogance has gone to his head".
"Instead of hearing them out, farmers are brutalised and beaten up. The Baadshah in the Delhi Sultanate is drunk with power," the Congress leader alleged.
Lashing out at the government for stopping the farmers' rally CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre of being anti-farmer.
Speaking to ANI, Yechury said, “It reconfirms the fact that Modi government is anti-farmers. Instead of providing relief to the farmers, they are exasperating the crisis, further forcing farmers to be under debt burden and distress suicides. We have not seen such an agrarian distress in India since Independence.”