Protesters clash with police on a border between Haryana and Punjab Farmers’ protest in 2020-21 forced the government to drop new legislation New Delhi NEW DELHI: Entry points to New Delhi were blocked by police on Tuesday as thousands of farmers started their protest march on the Indian capital after failed negotiations with the government. Over 200 farmer groups are participating in the march to demand higher minimum support prices — guaranteed prices for their crops at government-controlled wholesale markets. They are also demanding the government double farmers’ income. Protesters marched from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the country’s agriculture is concentrated and yields are high. Local media footage showed them clash with security forces. Tear gas canisters were on demonstrators from drones on a crossing between Punjab and Haryana, which borders Delhi. As they approached the capital on Tuesday, police in adjacent districts barricaded the roads with spikes, cement blocks and barbed wire. “We are stopping farmers from entering Delhi. We have barricaded the border and only common people are being allowed to go ... There is an instruction from Delhi police not to allow farmers to enter Delhi,” said Kalpana Saxena, additional police commissioner in Ghaziabad. Anil Yadav, deputy commissioner of police in Gautam Buddha Nagar, told Arab News the force had blocked five entry points to Delhi. “We are working out a route diversion (plan) ... We will decide according to the movement of farmers,” he said. Representatives of farmer unions held two rounds of talks with the government, but their final meeting with Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda and Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal failed to break the deadlock. “We tried our best in the meeting, so that there should be some decision so that we can avoid confrontation with the government,” Swaran Singh Pandher, leader of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), which is spearheading the protest, told Arab News. The group is a part of the coalition that coordinated a protest against laws deregulating the agriculture sector in 2020-21, when tens of thousands of farmers camped out on major highways leading to Delhi for more than a year. While the government eventually rolled back the controversial legislation, it has yet to fulfill the promise of increasing the income of the farmers. “The government promised lots of things when we ended our agitation in 2021. But nothing has moved since then,” Pandher said. “We are willing to talk with the government and end our agitation if the government gives us something concrete.” Farmers are the most influential voting bloc and may prove crucial for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election bid in the general polls expected between April and May. Their previous mass protest was seen as the biggest challenge until that time for the Modi government.