Over 3,000 farmers from 36 villages in Bulandshahr district began a march on foot towards the Ghazipur border on Wednesday afternoon, many of them carrying water in steel urns on their heads.

The farmers said they were taking drinking water to the dharna site on the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border because the Yogi Adityanath government had suspended water supply to the area to pressure the protesters into leaving.

For the past one week, the protesting farmers at Ghazipur have been fetching water in cans from the neighbourhood on their tractors.

The Bulandshahr farmers said they expected to cover the distance of 100km in about 15 hours and reach the Ghazipur border on Thursday morning, if their journey was not disrupted by police.

Mangeram Tyagi, general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) for the National Capital Region, led the march.

“This is a disciplined padyatra. The farmers are walking in a single file on the left side of the highway,” Tyagi said.