England won't force Stokes to return for T20 World Cup

London, Sep 7 (IANS) England won't force Ben Stokes to come out of injury and play the T20 World Cup, the head coach of the team has confirmed."We are going to leave that one late, to give it our best chance," Chris Silverwood said in a virtual interaction with the media. Stokes is missing the nded inconclusively as they turned down all of the farmers' demands.Post the meeting, Yogendra Yadav told the media, "Our talks with the DC and the SP were held in three rounds. It was attended by 15 representatives. All we demanded was strict action against the IAS officer who ordered lathicharge on August 28. We didn't seek any compensation. However, the authorities didn't agree to even that."Quoting Mahabharata, Yadav said, "Just like the Pandavas in Mahabharata, who asked for five villages, we asked the authorities to at least suspend the SDM for his August order."However, the authorities are supporting the IAS officers' move. They said 'theek hi kiya unhone ne' (he did the right thing). In the end, we asked them to at least suspend the officer before an enquiry is completed, but they didn't even agree to this demand of ours."It was after the farmer union leaders reached the Mahapanchayat site that they unanimously decided to march towards the mini-secretariat to gherao the area, which was followed by hundreds and thousands of protesters beginning the 7 km journey from the Anaj Mandi to the district administration building.A heavy traffic jam was witnessed in Karnal due to the march, as farmers flooded the NH44.The protesters were first stopped by the police at Namaste Chowk. However, they were allowed to move ahead following a short discussion with the police.Riding on tractors, the farmers were seen carrying 'lathis' (sticks) to the gherao area.On their way to the secretariat, some protesters also removed a barricade obstructing their path. However, after reaching the mini-secretariat in Karnal, the farmers staged a 'dharna' (sit-in) in front of the district administration office.Despite the news of arrests and detention of farmer union leaders at Namaste Chowk, they maintained that no one was arrested or detained by the police on their way to the secretariat.Meanwhile, in what could only be referred to as an act of kindness, local residents living nearby Karnal's mini-secretariat area distributed water bottles and food to the protesting farmers.The farmers have been protesting against the three farm laws passed by the Centre in the Parliament last year for over nine months now.
--IANS avr/msk/arm