Farmers Movement Archive

On her way to Delhi to join farmers’ stir, Medha Patkar denied entry in UP

AGRA: On her way to join ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation in the national capital along with scores of farmers from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, social activist Medha Patkar was prevented from entering Uttar Pradesh near Saiyan village in Agra district close to Rajasthan border on Wednesday night, prompting the Save Narmada crusader to stage a protest on the Agra-Mumbai national highway (NH-3) against the government’s new farm laws and other policies in Rajasthan’s Dholpur on Thursday. “We spent the night on the highway in the rain,” Patkar told TOI. “We were provided with tea and food only in the morning (on Thursday) that too by the Rajasthan administration.” UP Police had, however, no answer to their questions as to under which law she and others were prevented from entering the state. “It was a diktat, in fact,” said Patkar, adding: “The protest will continue till Friday.” Accusing the government of dividing them and breaking their unity, Patkar said, “The government doesn’t want us to show our strength, so the borders were blocked. But our unity is very strong and we will keep our fight against injustice going.” Addressing the protesting farmers at the border, she said, “The Centre is not allowing farmers even to breathe. How can they enforce such laws without consulting the farmers, their organisations and states?” Lambasting the UP Police for suggesting them to take another route to Delhi via Rajasthan and Haryana, Patkar said: “We would have to cover extra 250 km distance to reach Delhi had we taken the route suggested by them. We are not foreign-funded agencies and don’t have so much money to spend. They could have escorted us to that the Delhi border, but they chose not to do so.” Mahendra Tomar, a Narmada Bachao activist, told TOI that they blocked the highway for one hour initially and asked the administration and police to work out a solution. "But as they didn't do anything, the protesters and farmers blocked the highway again. They, however, did not disrupt the traffic by keeping half of the highway opened for the movement of vehicles.” Justifying their decision to halt the farmers’ march to Delhi, SP (Agra west) Ravi Kumar told TOI: “The Delhi government has requested us to stop farmers from reaching the national capital since they had no permission to stage a protest. Besides, such gatherings would also have violated the Covid protocol.” “The prohibitory orders are in force in Agra, too, so we have deployed nearly 100 police personnel at the border,” added the SP.

The Times of India

2020-11-27

Agra