About a thousand farmers marched on Monday from Sector 34 to Matka Chowk in Chandigarh to press for their demands, including the implementation of an agriculture policy by the Punjab government, and handed over a memorandum to Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian.

Farmers under the banner of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union on Sunday began a five-day protest to press for their demands.

Farmer leaders said the Chandigarh authorities permitted a group of about a thousand farmers, including a number of women, to take out a march till Matka Chowk.

Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan led the protest march that was joined by leaders of other outfits, including Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and Harinder Singh Lakhowal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal).

Khuddian later reached Matka Chowk and received a memorandum from the farmers after they insisted they would only hand it over to a minister and not any official.

"The farmers are our brothers. We will go through the memorandum and I will also give it to the chief minister and, as a lawyer for the farmers, will present their views before him," Khuddian told reporters.

The farmers, who had walked more than five kilometres, later boarded buses arranged by the administration and returned to the Dussehra ground at Sector 34.

Ugrahan said his outfit's programmes would continue and announce the next course of action on September 5.

Many women who were part of the march said the Punjab government had promised to make state drugs free.

However, the drugs menace continues and many youngsters have fallen prey to it, said a woman protester.

The police had made security arrangements in view of the march and traffic was diverted at many points.

When reporters pointed out that this was a departure from the past practice of the Chandigarh administration, which allowed a large group of farmers to gather after several years, Tikait said it was a good thing.

Matka Chowk is a busy roundabout in the heart of the city. Sector 34 is also an educational and commercial hub. In view of the protest, many private coaching institutes suspended classes on Monday.

Tikait also said the Centre should frame a law that gave a guarantee to the minimum support price (MSP).

Addressing the gathering at Matka Chowk, he said, "Regarding the demands to the Punjab government, the demands are for a new agriculture policy. The Punjab government should talk to farmers and their leaders and frame a policy as we can give suggestions. There are many issues, including those pertaining to depleting ground water." "What the state government can do on MSP, what recommendations it can give to the Centre on many issues pertaining to farmers and what policies it can frame on its own, these are various issues...," Tikait said.

Referring to the Chandigarh authorities allowing the protest, Tikait quipped, "After 2008, farmers are here… There is good greenery here, you don't need to erect a tent." He added, "One day, a tent will come up here." Before Khuddian arrived at the spot, Ugrahan hit out at the AAP government and claimed there was no difference in some of the policies that the Bhagwant Mann dispensation was pursuing and what his predecessors did.

Referring to the Bharatmala projects in Punjab, Ugrahan said the development which the Centre claimed would take place by building major highways was actually going to be for the "corporates".

"These roads are not for us but to facilitate the corporates so that they can sell their produce and easily procure material from here," he claimed.

Farmers from various parts of Punjab arrived in buses, tractor-trolleys and their personal vehicles and converged on the Dussehra ground in Chandigarh's Sector 34 on Sunday to take part in the sit-in.

The administration allotted the ground for the protest.

The farmers are protesting against alleged delays in the implementation of an agriculture policy, claiming that the Punjab government had not taken any meaningful step on it.

The AAP government assumed power two-and-a-half-years ago but the promised agriculture policy is yet to be implemented, they alleged.

The farmers' other demands include the promotion of chemical-free crops, compensation to the families of farmers who committed suicide, and curbing the drugs problem in the state, Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union general secretary Lachhman Singh Sewewala earlier said.

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