On Wednesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the Haryana government to remove barriers on the Shambhu border with Punjab within one week. Since February 13, this border has been occupied by a group of farmers to continue their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, which was stopped earlier. The direction was passed by Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Vikas Bahl during the re-resumption of hearings for the prayers concerning the petitions on farmers’ issues & the protest blockade. The court stressed that the blockade created many problems for the ordinary population, so the decision to remove barriers was made.
During the case hearing, the bench wanted to know the number of farmers still sitting on the border of Ambala and Patiala district. This decision was made after the court got intelligence information that there were about 400-450 farmers who were camping in the said area, and the court referred security agencies to address the law and order situation.
The court also ordered the Punjab Government to assist the Haryana Government. The farmer organisations were told to avoid undesirable events after the barriers are lifted. An additional advocate of Haryana claimed after the hearing that the court had given the Haryana government one week to open barricades. Both the Punjab agricultural and Haryana governments have been restrained from creating any law and order situation and, in the case of occurrence, have to act legally and lawfully. The farmers have been advised of the freedom to protest in accordance with the authority’s permission and that the protest sites should be sanctioned by different administrative units.
Apart from the Shambhu border, the farmers are still continuing their protestors at the Khanauri border, which is near Jind in Punjab. But no order has been passed regarding Khanauri.
Check here for the latest updates in Hindi!