MP: Congress protests over farm laws; cops use tear gas, water cannons

Congress workers protestingagainst the three agri laws clashed with the police andallegedly hurled stones while on their way to gherao RajBhavan here on Saturday, prompting police to use watercannons, tear gas and canes to disperse them, officials said.

At least six police personnel and some people wereinjured in the incident, while 106 protesters were detainedand released later, an officer said.

Hundreds of workers of the Congress led by MadhyaPradesh party unit chief Kamal Nath took part in the protest.

The clash occurred at the barricaded GTB area close toRoshanpur square.

TT Nagar area City Superintendent of Police (CSP)Umesh Tiwari said that more than half a dozen people includingsix policemen were injured.

''A man sustained injury to his head. He wasn't aprotester,'' he added.

''Police first used water cannons, then fired tear gasshells. The protesters threw stones, broke down barricades andattacked police personnel, prompting the police to resort tomild lathi charge,'' Tiwari said.

The CSP denied that police used force to suppress theprotest.

Addressing protesters at Jawahar Chowk before theclash, Nath said the three new farm laws enacted by theCentral government were completely anti-farmer.

''The three laws would benefit only capitalists whilethe farmers would become slaves and bonded labourers ofindustrialists,'' he said.

Alleging that small and marginalised farmers have beenignored while making these laws, Nath said mandis (agrimarkets) and Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime will come toend if these legislations are implemented.

Farming would become a contractual affair, he added.

''The Central government should immediately repeal thethree laws by accepting the farmers' demand,'' the former chiefminister said.

He said the Congress will continue to support theagitating farmers till the government accepts their demands.

Later, Nath took to twitter to blast the Shivraj SinghChouhan government over the police ''brutality''.

''I strongly condemn the barbaric cane charge, use oftear gas and water on thousands of farmers and Congressmenprotesting peacefully (sic),'' Nath tweeted.

''In the lathi charge, farmers, Congressmen, women andmediapersons have been injured. I wish them speedy recovery.

Our support to farmers would continue. We are not going to bebogged down with such suppression,'' Nath added.

According to the Madhya Pradesh Congress, the protestslaunched by the party in the state since January 7 on theissue of farm laws culminated on Saturday with the ''massiveprotest'' held at Bhopal.

Enacted in September last year, the three laws havebeen projected by the Centre as major reforms in theagriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allowfarmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana andwestern Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several borderpoints of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding arepeal of the three farm laws.

Multiple rounds of talks between the government andfarmer unions have failed to break the impasse so far, whilethe Supreme Court has appointed a panel for resolution.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)