Farmers to resume march towards Delhi at 12 noon from Shambhu
Chandigarh (PTI): A group of 101 farmers will resume their foot march to Delhi at 12 noon on Sunday from the Shambhu border point to press the Centre for various demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary has been made at the Shambhu border, which falls in Punjab.
Farmer leader Tejveer Singh on Sunday said the 'jatha' (group) of farmers will march towards the national capital.
Protesting farmers had on Friday suspended their march to the national capital for the day after some of them suffered injuries due to tear gas shells fired by security personnel, who stopped them at the Punjab-Haryana border.
The farmers have been pressing for various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP. They have also been pressing the Centre to initiate talks with them to address their issues.
Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday had said that they had not received any message from the Centre for talks to address their issues.
The Haryana Police has written to its Punjab counterpart asking it to ensure media personnel are stopped at a "safe distance" from the protest site for their safety as well as to ensure ease in maintaining law and order.
As part of a call given by the farmer unions Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, a 'jatha' of 101 farmers began its march to Delhi on Friday from their protest site at the Shambhu border to press for their demands.
The group was stopped by multi-layered barricading erected by Haryana security personnel. Undeterred by prohibitory orders, the farmers attempted to force their way through the barricades but were stopped by security personnel who lobbed multiple tear gas shells to force them to go back to their protest site at Shambhu.
The Haryana Police had asked the farmers not to proceed further and cited a prohibitory order clamped by the Ambala administration under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that bans unlawful assembly of five or more people in the district.
Farmers had earlier said that they had appealed to the government to either hold a dialogue with the protesting farmers or "allow us to move to Delhi".
However, the Haryana Police had said protesting farmers created ruckus and also made their best efforts to demolish police barricades set up at the Haryana side of the border.
Ambala police had said the farmers' outfits should march to Delhi after taking permission from the Delhi administration.
Shortly before the farmers' march, the Haryana government on Friday suspended mobile internet and bulk SMS service in 11 villages of the Ambala district till December 9.
The protesting farmers had earlier attempted to march towards Delhi on February 13 and February 21 but were stopped by security forces deployed at the border points.
Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
