Farmers Movement Archive

Annoyed with stoppage of tractor-trolleys in UP, farmers block Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway of NH-9

Ghaziabad: Farmers protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws on Monday briefly blocked an operational Delhi to Ghaziabad carriageway on the National Highway-9 at UP Gate to mark their unhappiness over allegations that their supporters were being stopped from reaching them.Rumours of police blocking farmers at district borders had been doing the rounds for a few days. The Ghaziabad district administration had then said they would speak to their counterparts on the matter and assured they had not stopped their supporters. On Monday, the Ghaziabad district officials were at it again, and managed to get the blockade lifted in 45 minutes.“The issue is that our supporters’ tractor-trolleys were stopped at Pilibhit and Rampur. We have told officials that our fight is with the Centre and not with the state governments of UP or Uttarakhand,” said Rakesh Tikait, leader and spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union’s (BKU’s) Tikait faction. “After assurance from officials that the matter would be looked into, we allowed traffic through.”Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said, “We have referred their issue to senior officers and the blockade of NH-9 was lifted. To cater to commuters, we had to divert the traffic through Kaushambi.”The protesters at UP-Gate are continuing with blockade of Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway since December 3 while the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway is operational for normal traffic.However, in two previous instances, the protesters had blocked the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway as well.The first instance was on December 8 during the “Bharat Bandh” call when the other side of the NH-9 was blocked from 11am to 3pm while a brief blockade was also made on December 14 when the farmers had given a call for protests at district headquarters.Meanwhile, Tikait on Monday also announced more measures to be taken up at the protest site which has presence of farmers from western UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand.“It has also been decided during the co-ordination committee meeting on Sunday that no loud music will be allowed at the site after midnight. Further, the relay-fast has also been started and farmers have been urged to skip one-time meal on ‘Kisan Diwas’ on December 23. I would also urge our volunteers to ensure that there is no nuisance created with the people of the press,” Tikait said during a briefing at UP-Gate.“The media persons are showing our protest continuously and we know that ‘kalam aur camera pe bandook ka pehra hai (pen and camera are under the scanner of guns)’. Still, they are doing their job and we must thank them. Every volunteer must ensure that no trouble-maker tries to create nuisance here,” he said.Sardar VM Singh, another farmer leader said on Monday morning that it was painful that the tractor-trolleys were getting stopped midway.“If the government wants to hold talks and resolve our pain, so they must not stop farmers and on the other hand they say that we are opening doors for talks. Such things cannot go together. People are coming from a lot of places and when people are coming peacefully, they must not be stopped. Otherwise they will stop there and will hold protest. Our farmer leaders will also meet corporates in Mumbai and urge them to speak to the government to resolve the issues of farmers who are on roads and help them in rollback of farm laws,” he told reporters at UP-Gate.

Hindustan Times

21-12-2020

Noida