Barricades along the Noida-Delhi border were removed and the movement of traffic was restored on Monday after farmers’ groups from Punjab, who had gathered to march towards Delhi to press for their demands, agreed to vacate the site, NDTV reported.

Earlier in the day, the farmers’ groups broke barricades set up by the police near the Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida and attempted to begin their march towards Delhi in another round of protests, the Hindustan Times reported.

The march, organised by the Bhartiya Kisan Parishad and other farmers groups from at least 20 districts in the state, aimed to press for a law guaranteeing a minimum support price for agricultural commodities, among other demands, The Hindu reported.

A minimum support price is the rate at which the government buys farm produce from cultivators. It is based on a calculation that aims to compensate farmers with at least one-and-a-half times the cost incurred in production.

Videos taken at the Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida on Monday showed farmers climbing over the barricades while security personnel stood by in riot gear. However, after a meeting between the farmers and the authorities in Noida, Bhartiya Kisan Parishad leader Sukhbir Khalifa said that he would give the Centre a week to address their various demands, NDTV quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Following this, the farmers temporarily shifted their protest to Noida’s Ambedkar Park, NDTV reported. However, the farmers’ groups said they would resume their march towards Delhi if their demands were not met soon.

On Sunday, Khalifa had told ANI that the farmers were ready to march towards Delhi to press for their demands.

“Tomorrow, on December 2, we will start our march towards Delhi from under the Maha Maya flyover [in Noida],” he said. “By noon, all of us will reach there and demand our compensation and benefits as per the new [farm] laws."

Additional Commissioner of Police Sagar Singh Kalsi on Monday said that security arrangements had been made at all major and minor border-crossings in East Delhi in view of the protest, PTI reported.

“We have done barricading, have anti-riot equipment,” the news agency quoted Kalsi as saying. “There is an elaborate arrangement, we are also ensuring that common people won’t get affected. We are also coordinating with traffic police.”

Protesting farmers have been stationed at various locations on the Punjab-Haryana border since February 13, when the Haryana Police used water cannons, drones and tear gas shells to stop the farmers from entering the state.

The farmers have accused the Centre of failing to address their demands, claiming that no talks have been held with them since February 18.

Apart from a minimum support price, other demands in the farmers’ charter include the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations on agriculture in India, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a farm debt waiver, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, India’s withdrawal from the World Trade Organization and compensation for families of farmers who died during the previous farmers’ protests between 2020 and 2021.

The groups have also demanded that police cases against farmers relating to the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence be withdrawn.

SC asks farmers to refrain from causing inconvenience to public

Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court directed farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal to persuade the protesting farmers not to obstruct highways or inconvenience the public, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan made the remarks while disposing of a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Dallewal. The farm leader, who had been on an indefinite hunger strike, was forcibly removed from a protest site near the Haryana border in Punjab’s Khanauri on November 26.

The bench also noted that the court had taken into account the demands made by the farmers.

“In a democratic setup, you can engage in peaceful protests but do not cause inconvenience to people,” the court told advocate Guninder Kaur Gill, representing Dallewal. “You all know that the Khanauri border is a lifeline for Punjab. We are not commenting on whether the protest is right or wrong.”