Hundreds of farmers were detained by the Punjab Police on Wednesday as they attempted to march toward Chandigarh for a week-long protest, The Indian Express reported.

The farmers, part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, were met with heavy security and barricades at over 25 locations across the state.

“Wherever any farmer came out [on roads], police of that area stopped them,” Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General HS Bhullar was quoted as saying by PTI.

The farmers burned effigies of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party-led state government to express their frustration at not being allowed to march to the state capital, The Hindu reported.

“We have burnt effigies of the Mann Government in Amritsar for stopping the farmers’ march to Chandigarh,” a farmer leader told the newspaper. “The AAP Government is suppressing our democratic right to protest. Farmers are being stopped from protesting in the national capital, and also stopped from protesting in the state capital. The chief minister is working at the behest of the Centre.”

The protest was organised by over 30 farmers’ groups to demand an agriculture policy that favors farmers. They have demanded a guarantee that six crops – including basmati rice, maize, moong dal and potatoes – will be bought by the state government at minimum support prices, The Hindu reported.

The minimum support price is the rate at which the government procures crops from farmers.

They also called for the rejection of the Centre’s draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing and sought a legal guarantee for minimum support prices and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission.

On Tuesday, several Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders were detained by the police and charged under sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, according to The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, Mann criticised the protestors, accusing them of turning Punjab into a “state of dharnas”.

“I told farmers that every day you hold ‘rail roko’, ‘sadak roko’ protest,” the chief minister said. “This is causing immense losses to Punjab. The state is facing economic losses. Punjab is becoming a state of dharna.”

A day prior, Mann reportedly walked out of a meeting with farmer leaders at Chandigarh’s Punjab Bhawan, where they presented to him 18 demands ahead of Wednesday’s protest.