Farmers Movement Archive

AAP vows all basic facilities to farmers at Delhi borders

NEW DELHI: Amid attempts to evict farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders, Aam Aadmi Party has stepped in to provide them water and necessary facilities, apart from backing their agitation against the agri laws. Taking to Twitter, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal extended his support to the farmers and said it was wrong to call them traitors. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia visited Ghazipur border in east Delhi, while water minister Satyendar Jain and Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Raghav Chadha met the farmers at Singhu border and inspected the facilities being provided by Delhi government. On the request of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, Kejriwal directed the authorities to set up drinking water and toilet facilities at Ghazipur protest site. Sisodia said the UP government had stopped drinking water and electricity facilities for the farmers at Ghazipur and called it oppressive and highly condemnable. “It is unfortunate that the farmers who feed the nation are being branded as traitors and violent. For the first time in history, the loving Sikh community is being branded as traitors by the central government under the pressure from their capitalist friends. The Centre has resorted to repressive techniques to crush the farmers’ protest,” he added. “Had the central government held a dialogue with the farmers two months ago, the unfortunate violence on Republic Day would not have taken place. The sponsored violence must be fairly investigated and the real guilty punished. There should be a proper investigation of the link between the perpetrators of the violence and the BJP government,” said Sisodia, while demanding rollback of the “unjust farm laws”. Jain said, “We were getting continuous phone calls that on the instruction of BJP, police stopped basic facilities. It is clear that the BJP leadership has instructed police to stop water tankers. It is unfortunate and shameful to stop even the basic necessities. They want to keep the farmers thirsty and hungry because they think in this way they can break the protests.” He added that water was a basic need and requested BJP to supply water to the farmers. Chadha said the farmers were not terrorists or traitors, so BJP should stop dirty politics. Stressing that the Kejriwal government would ensure all basic facilities, he added, “On the instruction of the BJP government, the network in the entire area is down. That is why Wi-Fi set up by the Kejriwal government is not working anymore. BJP also removed all toilets from the spot. From January 26, police have also stopped the langars provided by the Kejriwal government at Singhu border. Police have not allowed us to restart the facility.”

The Times of India

2021-01-30

Delhi