DW BUREAU / chandigarh Farmers raised slogans outside the offices of district deputy commissioners and took out protest marches in Punjab and Haryana on Monday, following a nationwide call given by their unions against the new central laws. The Haryana Police closed the Ambala-Patiala highway for a few hours after protesters gathered at the Shambhu border point with adjoining Punjab. The ruling Congress also held protests in Punjab, with the state unit chief Sunil Jakhar participating in one near the Shambhu border. Shiromani Akali Dal workers protested in Amritsar. In Punjab, protests were held in several districts including Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Amritsar, Barnala, Gurdaspur, Bathinda, Moga, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Tarn Taran. "Farmers held protests outside the offices of deputy commissioners at several places in Punjab," Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said. Protest marches were also taken out, he said. "Despite the cold weather, farmers including women and children participated in the agitations in large numbers," the union leader said. In Punjab's Hoshiarpur, protesters carrying placards and union flags staged a sit-in and blocked traffic for over four hours outside the district administrative complex. In Haryana, protests were reported from Fatehabad, Jind, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Bhiwani, Kaithal and Ambala. Slogan-shouting protesters pushed at the barricades near the mini-secretariat in Jind, trying to enter the district office complex. In Fatehabad, they took out a tractor procession before some of them sat on a hunger strike at the district secretariat. In Ambala city too, there was slogan shouting outside the DC's office. In Faridabad, farmers took out a march towards the secretariat. A group of lawyers also sat on a 'dharna' there, extending support to the farmers. Some employee unions in Haryana also extended support to the protesting farmers. Memorandums were submitted to the Centre through the deputy commissioners at other places in Haryana, demanding the scrapping of the new laws. "We want a legal guarantee on the MSP and the repeal of the farm laws," said a Fatehabad farmer. Thousands of farmers ? mainly from Punjab and Haryana -- have been camping at the entry points to Delhi for days. Monday's district-level protests were part of this agitation. Farmer unions are seeking the repeal of the three agri-marketing laws enacted at the Centre in September. Negotiations so far with the Centre have failed to break the deadlock over the laws, which the unions say weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system and will leave them at the mercy of big corporations. The BJP-led government has assured that the system will stay and maintained that the laws will offer farmers more options for selling their crops. Farmer leaders on Monday went on a daylong hunger strike and their colleagues demonstrated in different parts of the country to push for a rollback of the new farm laws, as Union minister Rajnath Singh said there is no question of the government ever taking any "retrograde step" against the agriculture sector. On Day 19 of the protest at Delhi's border points when agriculturalists from multiple states in the north intensified their movement, particularly at Delhi's gateways, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the government is engaging with them to decide on the next date of talks ? deadlocked after five rounds. "The meeting will definitely happen. We are engaging with farmers," Tomar told PTI amid a flurry of meetings in the national capital to discuss the future course of action and separate groups meeting him and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The government is ready for discussion anytime and farmer leaders have to "decide and convey" when they are ready for the next meeting, added Tomar, who is leading the negotiations with 40 farmer unions along with Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Som Parkash.With the movement picking up pace at Delhi's doorstep, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal joined in the fast too, describing the legislations as "anti-farmer and anti-common man". He joined AAP leaders, MLAs and volunteers at the party office for the hunger strike. Keeping the door open for negotiations, Rajnath Singh described agriculture as a "mother sector" and also said the government is always willing to listen to farmers. Singh said the recent reforms were undertaken with the best interests of farmers in mind. (editor@dailyworld.in)