Agri laws: More Punjab farmers head towards protest sites near Delhi
Chandigarh: Carrying ration and other essential items with them, several batches of farmers from Punjab headed towards Delhi borders on Saturday to join the peasants protesting against the Centre's new agriculture-related laws for a month now.
According to farmer union leaders, peasants from various places including Sangrur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Bathinda districts were headed towards Singhu and Tikri borders.
They began their journey despite fog and biting cold wave conditions in many parts of Punjab on Saturday.
Tractor trollies, cars and other vehicles carrying farmers, including elderly and women, were seen on the Amritsar-Delhi national highway, proceeding towards the borders with the national capital.
It seemed the farmers were prepared for a long haul as they carried their ration and other essentials in their trollies.
"We will rest only when the Modi government repeals the farm laws," said an elderly farmer headed from Amritsar to the protest site near Singhu border.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), one of Punjab's largest farmer organisations protesting against the recent laws, claimed that thousands of farmers will march from the Khanauri and Dabwali borders towards protest sites near the national capital.
The outfit's General Secretary Sukhdev Singh said that many women are also part of the fresh batches of farmers.
On Friday too, several batches of farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) headed for the protest sites from Amritsar and other places.
Meanwhile, for a second day on Saturday toll collection was halted at several highway points in Haryana -- including in Karnal, Sirsa, Rohtak and Jhajjar districts -- by the farmers protesting against the new agriculture-related laws.
Responding to a call given by the Bharatiya Kisan Union, farmers had on Friday halted toll collection on most highways in Haryana. Officials said toll collection remained halted at several toll points on Saturday too.
A few days ago, the BKU had announced that toll booths in Haryana would not be allowed to collect charges between December 25 and 27.
However, operations were normal at various toll plazas in Gurugram and Palwal districts.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and other parts of the country have been protesting for the past nearly a month near various border points of the national capital, demanding the repeal of the farm laws, which the ruling party has claimed are for farmers' benefit.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
