Farmers Movement Archive

Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway reopens after nearly 50 days

The carriageway of Delhi-Meerut expressway, directed towards Ghaziabad from Delhi, reopened for motorists on Monday. The road was closed by Delhi Police after the incident of violence here on Januray 26, the police said. A senior police officer said that in view of the prevailing law and order situation at Ghazipur border and keeping in mind the public convenience, the carriageway of NH-24 going towards Gaziabad from Delhi has been opened in due consultation with policemen of Gaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, in public interest. However, the other side of the carriageway, directed towards Delhi from Ghaziabad is closed for traffic as protesters have blocked it. In a tweet, the Delhi Traffic Police said, “Traffic movement is closed on Ghazipur Border [Ghaziabad to Delhi], Singhu Border, Dhansa Border, Mangeshpur Border, Harewali Border and Tikri Border.” Convenience Sachin Rawat (29), who works at Noida, said it will now take less time for him to reach office. “When the stretch was closed, I used to go to my office in Noida via Indirapuram. Now it will not have much impact on travel time, but NH-24 is more convenient,” he said. On March 2, the carriageway was briefly opened and later closed for traffic movement. The Ghazipur border is one of the major protest sites where farmers have been sitting and it was temporarily closed. However, the Tikri and Singhu borders are completely closed for traffic movement. Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi border points – Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur – for over three months, demanding the repeal of farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price for their crops. Farmers present at the Ghazipur protest site said the carriageway going towards Ghaziabad/ Meerut was opened late on Sunday. “We don’t mind if one more carriageway is opened for traffic. It seems the move to close the movement of traffic was to create a negative image of farmers among the locals,” said Omvir Singh, a farmer from Aligarh. BKU welcomes move Dharmendra Malik, media in-charge, Bhartiya Kisan Union, welcomed the move and said they had been demanding the opening of the carriageway since it was closed after January 26. Mahendra Singh, SHO, Kaushambi, said the Ghaziabad police had given inputs to their counterparts in Delhi that locals were facing problems. “No untoward incident has been reported so far,” he said. Mr. Singh said there was, however, no information on opening the cut towards Ghaziabad beneath the flyover. For constable Salek Chand, it remains business as usual. “We are doing 12-hour shifts since last month. The number of farmers has come down but we can’t take chance,” he said.

The Hindu

2021-03-16

NEW DELHI