Farmers seeking sunflower MSP cane-charged in Kurukshetra, many detained

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, June 6

Police on Tuesday cane charged farmers near Kurukshetra's Shahbad to get NH44 open as peasants had blocked the highway claiming government was not buying their sunflower seeds on MSP.

Police had to resort to water cannon and lathicharge to disperse the crowd.

 A large number of farmers were detained in the exercise.     

IG Ambala Range, Sibash Kabiraj, reached Shahbad to take stock of the situation. Traffic was later restored on NH44 after Kabiraj asked officials to get the road cleared.

The farmers blocked the Delhi-Chandigarh NH near Shahbad after a call was given by BKU (Charuni) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni.

The protesting farmers claimed that the government was not buying sunflower seeds at the minimum support price, and as a result, they were forced to sell their produce to private buyers at around Rs 4,000 per quintal against Rs 6,400 MSP.

The farmers gathered at the protest site and crossed police barricades and blocked the NH, with some bringing their vehicles laden with sunflower seeds.