Farmers Movement Archive

12-hour Bharat Bandh: Farmers block most Haryana highways

The 12-hour Bharat Bandh call given by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha for Friday to mark four months of the ongoing farmers’ agitation on Delhi borders got a good response across the northern districts of Haryana, especially in the small towns.Most of the subzi mandis wore a deserted look as farmers did not turn up to sell their vegetables and vendors had to return empty handed. “I went to purchase vegetables at Sabzi Mandi Ladwa (Kurukshetra) for a party at home but the mandi was closed,” said Mukesh Kumar.Farmers have also reportedly blocked most of the roads connecting districts and traffic has been diverted to link roads. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the Karnal railway station as trains were stopped following reports that farmers had blocked the tracks in Ambala.“Since trains were not cancelled, we decided to go for Vaishno Devi darshan as per our schedule, but now the train has been stopped at Karnal and we can’t understand why the government allowed the train to start from Delhi if there was a bandh call,” said Delhi-based passenger Lisa.Also Read | Left parties participate in Bharat bandh in VisakhapatnamFarmer union leaders announced that they will block all state and national highways of the state and will also take out a protest march, requesting shopkeepers to down their shutters in support of the agitation against the three agriculture laws.Jagdip Singh Aulakh, local leader of BKU (Charuni), said Karnal-Meerut; Karnal- Kaithal; Karnal-Yamunanagar; and Karnal-Assandh roads will be blocked.Meanwhile, district administrations have made arrangements to deal with any untoward incident and traffic advisory has been issued to avoid traffic jams.Kurukshetra Police said traffic will be diverted to NH-44 from Shahbad and Pipli. There will also be diversions from the Pehowa-Patiala road and the Kaithal-Kurukshetra road via link roads.Karnal Superintendent of Police Ganga Ram Punia said that elaborate arrangements have been made to deal with any untoward incident and police have been deputed at all link roads to avoid traffic jams.BKU(Charuni) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni thanked farmers for supporting the bandh. In a video message, he, urged activists to ensure the movement of emergency vehicles during the bandh. “Don’t stop local vendors, emergency vehicles and supply of milk and essentials as this movement is against the government not the people,” he said.Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national Capital since November 26 last year, against the three newly enacted farm laws - Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Hindustan Times

26-03-2021

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