Farmers have blocked the highway (NH-44) near Pipli, which connects Delhi with Chandigarh, and some other routes since Monday afternoon after holding a mahapanchayat on the issue. 

 Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said they held a meeting with the district administration twice on Monday night but the talks did not yield any outcome. He said a local committee of farmers that was constituted on Monday and the leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) would hold a meeting on Tuesday to chalk out their further course of action. 

 Tikait said the issue of minimum support price for sunflower crop is not only affecting farmers in Haryana but the entire farmer community "as we are demanding a MSP law for all crops, as promised by the union government when we withdrew the 'Kisan andolan' (farmers agitation against the now repealed farm laws)". 

 Apart from the MSP for sunflower seeds, the protesting farmers are demanding the release of nine farmer union leaders who were arrested during a protest at Shahabad recently. 

 Kurukshetra's Superintendent of Police S S Bhoria told PTI that the district administration is trying to persuade the farmers to lift the blockade and was hopeful that a solution would be found. He also said that a fresh case has been registered against the protesters by the police under relevant provisions of law for blocking the national highway. 

 Prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 imposed in an area of 2 km radius of grain market Pipli, where farmers held their mahapanchayat, have been violated, he said. 

 The "MSP Dilao, Kisan Bachao Mahapanchayat", called by the BKU (Charuni), was held at a grain market in Pipli close to national highway-44.

Subsequently, they blocked the highway. The district administration and the police have been making efforts to persuade the protesting farmers to lift the blockade, which has caused inconvenience to commuters.