Farmers across Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh organized tractor rallies and demonstrations, demanding the exclusion of the agriculture sector from the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. Led by various farm unions, including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and Bharatiya Kisan Union, protesters parked their tractors along highways and burned effigies representing the WTO. The demonstrations disrupted traffic at several locations, with rallies and burning effigies reported from Punjab’s Khanauri and Shambhu points to Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district.
In Uttar Pradesh, farmers, following a call by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), disrupted vehicular traffic and blocked highways by parking tractors. BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait criticized the government for neglecting farmers’ demands and condemned the treatment of farmers protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border. Similar protests occurred in Haryana’s Hisar, where farmers parked tractors along state and national highways, demanding legal guarantees for minimum support prices (MSP) and the implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
In Punjab’s Hoshiarpur and Amritsar, farmers parked their vehicles along highways, denouncing WTO policies as anti-farmer. The demonstrations also spread to Ludhiana, where farmers aligned with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha parked tractors along the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road. In Uttarakhand, farmers held a protest at the Bahadarabad toll plaza on the Haridwar-Delhi National Highway, voicing their grievances over unmet promises by the government regarding MSP and other demands. Farmer leaders warned of intensified protests if the government fails to fulfill their demands.
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