Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers block roads, toll plazas in protest

“In a show of their deep anguish over the alleged conspiracy orchestrated by the Central government to discredit and disrupt the ongoing struggle, the people across Haryana took to the roads on Saturday,” he said. The police said no untoward incidents had been reported in the State. The protest was also peaceful in Punjab, where farmers blocked roads and hampered the movement of traffic in Patiala, Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Barnala, Faridkot, Muktsar, Mansa, Bathinda and other districts. Farmers were seen shouting slogans against the BJP-led government at the Centre, but the crowd at Mohali’s Phase-7 road intersection, a prominent protest location, was thinner than during previous farm protests, such as the December 8 ‘Bharat bandh’. In Delhi, where there was no plan for road blockades, a solidarity meeting organised by trade union activists and others was sought to be organised at a park in the Income Tax Office area, which saw high levels of violence and chaos on Republic Day. The police took at least three trade union leaders into preventive custody in the morning, and then detained about 60 protesters at the park itself. Nearly 50,000 police personnel were deployed across the city, with others monitoring social media for harmful rumours, while drones scanned key locations. Farm unions reported police detentions at Jaura in Madhya Pradesh, near Yelahanka stadium in Bengaluru, and a highway near Hyderabad. About 150 protesting farmers of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh have also been served with notices by the police, according to an SKM statement. Other States Blockades were also carried out at 200 locations in Madhya Pradesh, as well as at multiple locations in Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka and Rajasthan, the SKM said. Blockades were also carried out in parts of western Uttar Pradesh, even though the Bharatiya Kisan Union-Tikait had yesterday called off the chakka jam in the State. “There was a plan to indulge in violence by people carrying the tricolor and the banner and caps of the Kisan Ekta Morcha,” said BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, explaining that such people had been found among the protesters at Ghazipur. (With inputs from Vikas Vasudeva in Punjab, Ashok Kumar in Gurugram, and Hemani Bhandari, Jatin Anand and Priscilla Jebaraj in New Delhi) There was a plan to indulge in violence by people carrying the tricolor and the banner and caps of the Kisan Ekta Morcha. Rakesh Tikait, BKU leader

The Hindu

2021-02-07

February 07 2021 00:00 IST