Farmers Movement Archive

No bandh impact, Prayagrajmarkets remain open all day

Prayagraj: The Bharat bandh called by farmers and supported by Opposition did not have any impact in the Sangam city as markets and other commercial establishments remained open and functioned normally on Tuesday. The markets in Civil Lines, Chowk, Katra, Preetam Nagar, Sulemsarai, Kothaparcha, Ghantaghar, Mutthiganj, Phaphamau, Rajapur and Mundera mandi remained open throughout the day. Police detained over 400 workers of Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at reserve police lines after picking them up from different parts of the city. No untoward incident was reported anywhere. Earlier in the day, some SP workers stopped a train at Prayag junction around 7.30am to protest against the new farm laws and demanded their roll back and were detained by GRP personnel. SP (GRP) Manoj Kumar Jha said, “The train departed about half an hour late. A case will be lodged against the activists under appropriate sections.” Police detained Congress leader Kishore Varshney and Youth Congress leader Haseeb Ahmad near Subhash crossing and foiled their attempt to force shopkeepers to down their shutters. Varshney alleged that police detained them at reserve police lines the whole day and even took away their mobiles. Samajwadi Party district spokesman Daan Bahadur said, “Our party leaders and workers went to markets and appealed them to close shops but were detained by police.” Massive deployment of police forces was made out throughout the city and even senior police officials patrolled streets. Additional forces were deployed at Mundera mandi where farmers from across the district come to sell their crops. Traders associated with different vyapar mandals did not show interest in bandh. President of Mundera Vyapaar Mandal, Dhananjay Singh said “Traders of Rajrupur, Mundera, Sulemsarai, Bamrauli and other areas had decided to open their establishments on Tuesday. We already faced heavy losses due to corona and could not close our shops at a time when wedding season is at peak.” SP (City) Dinesh Kumar Singh told TOI, “All the markets of the city were open throughout the day and no untoward incident was reported. Over 400 activists of political groups were detained by police.” “We had already warned of stringent action if anyone tried to disturb the law and order in the city,” he added.

The Times of India

2020-12-09

Allahabad