Bhubaneswar

Fire breaks out at Singhu protest site, farmer hurt, says Kisan Morcha

Staff Reporter

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Saturday said a fire broke out in a tent at Delhi’s Singhu border where farmers have been protesting the Centre’s three agri laws. However, there was no official word about the incident from the police or the fire department.

According to SKM, the incident took place around 10 am near an under-construction flyover where the tent was put up and the tent was completely burnt.

“A man was also injured while trying to extinguish the blaze. The tent was burnt after a cylinder caught fire. There were around 10 to 12 people inside the tent when the blaze broke out.

Five mobile phones, twenty mattresses, 20 chairs and dry ration were destroyed. A fire tender from Sonipat’s Kundli area doused the fire,” said the SKM.

Hundreds of farmers are camping at Delhi’s borders points at Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri since November demanding that the Centre repeal the three contentious farm laws and make a new one that would ensure legal guarantee on the MSP.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.