NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police and paramilitary dug ditches and spread razor wire across main roads into New Delhi on Monday to prevent protesting farmers entering the capital as the finance minister prepared to deliver the government's annual budget in parliament.
India is likely to increase allocations toward its annual food subsidy spending by 4%-6% in the budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 to cover the cost of running the world's biggest food welfare programme, said two government sources.
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By Mayank Bhardwaj and Alasdair Pal
SINGHU, India, Jan 30 (Reuters) - India blocked mobile internet services in several areas around New Delhi on Saturday as protesting farmers began a one-day hunger strike after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured.
Angry at new agricultural laws that they say benefit large private food buyers at the expense of producers, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped at protest sites on the outskirts of the capital for more than two months.
At the main protest site near the village of Singhu on the northern outskirts of the city, there was a heightened police presence on Saturday as hundreds of tractors arrived from Haryana, one of two states at the centre of the protests.
India blocked mobile internet services in several areas around New Delhi on Saturday as protesting farmers began a one-day hunger strike after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured.