Farmers Movement Archive

UP authorities defying SC observation by making bids to prevent our essential food supplies from reaching UP-Delhi border’

Pilibhit: With over 100 women and children, a group of 200 farmers from different villages of Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Kheri, who had assembled outside Kajri Gurdwara on Monday morning and started their journey for the UP-Delhi border along with 22 tractor-trolleys full of grain, pulses, wheat flour, rice, quilts and blankets, were stopped by police on Pilibhit-Basti NH 730 near Bhopatpur village on Monday. But foiling all attempts of police to stop them, they crossed the border of Pilibhit district at Bareilly-Haridwar NH-74 by 6.15 pm to continue their journey with the support of over one thousand local agriculturists.The farmers said that the authorities were openly defying the recent Supreme Court observation of their “right to peaceful protest” by obstructing their way.This was the third occasion when the administration had deployed heavy police force to foil the attempt of farmers to carry essential supplies to the Delhi border for the protesting farmers. Prior to this, three tractor trolleys had been stopped by the administration at midnight on December 19 and another two in the late hours on December 12.The farmers first staged a three-hour-long dharna near Bhopatpur. They raised slogans in support of their unity and then removed the police barriers to move forward. The administration then barricaded the NH at the bridge of Hardoi feeder canal near Udaikaranpur village in Puranpur area.Till the time the tractor-trolleys reached the spot, over 700 to 800 local farmers and 100 workers of Bhartiya Kisan Union from Puranpur area had joined them. Irked over police attempts to stop their movement, the farmers threw the barricades into the feeder canal.After they moved up to the Assam road police post on the outskirts of Pilibhit city, the administration again blocked their way by deploying the force of 13 police stations and a company of the Provincial Armed Constabulary apart from putting a layer of barricades.District magistrate Pulkit Khare, superintendent of police Jai Prakash Yadav, ASP Pavitra Mohan Tripathi, three COs, two ADMs and city magistrate Arun Kumar Singh were present there to control the situation but the farmers on their tractors pushed through the barricades.Finally, police placed two trucks on NH 74 at Shahi police post of Jahanabad police station near the border of Pilibhit district and made the last attempt to stop them. After a confrontation between the two sides that lasted for half an hour, the police had to remove the trucks and allow them the passage.No district official made any comment on the police action, except Puranpur SDM Rajendra Prasad, who curtly said, “I don’t need to reply to any question on the situation here.”Bhartiya Kisan Union district vice-president Manjit Singh said, “The role of the administration was suppressive and highly condemnable. It was aimed at breaking the supply chain of essential material for the ‘peaceful kisan agitators’ which was not only unfortunate but also against the democratic norms.”

The Times of India

2020-12-22

Bareilly