Farmers Movement Archive

Lakhimpur Kheri aftermath: Heightened police checking causes jam on DND Flyway

A number of people were stuck in traffic jam on the DND Flyway on Monday morning as police set up barricades to check vehicles in the wake of protests at several places in the city over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. The Noida police diverted the Delhi-bound traffic to Chilla border and the traffic movement remained slow between 8am and 11am, officials said. A police team headed by deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Ganesh Prasad Saha reached the spot and tried to ease the situation. Saha said that the Delhi Police had set up barricades on their side at the DND Flyway. “The Noida police also put up barricades to check vehicles entering Noida due to security reasons. This slowed down traffic movement at the DND Flyway. We soon diverted the traffic to the Chilla border. However, due to high volume of traffic, the vehicular movement was slow at Chilla border too,” he said. Brajesh Sharma, a resident of Antriksh Golf View 2, Noida’s Sector 78, said that he was stuck in jam for 50 minutes while going to Delhi. “Police personnel were randomly checking vehicles. This led to a massive jam on the DND Flyway,” he said.Several commuters took to social media to enquire about the traffic situation. Ashish Jain, a commuter, tagged Noida traffic police in a tweet, seeking information about the expected time by which the jam would end. The officials also said that the Film City road (Noida-Greater Noida side) remained congested as the workers were fixing streetlights. Meanwhile, several groups of farmers and members of opposition parties protested at several places in the city over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including farmers, were killed on Sunday. Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ambawata) held a protest outside the Noida city magistrate’s office. Rajesh Upadhyaya, Gautam Budh Nagar district president of the BKU faction, said that the farmers are pained over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. “The government is behaving as if farmers are their enemy. We demand compensation to the deceased farmers’ kin and jobs to their dependents,” he said. Another group of farmers also protested at the district collectorate in Surajpur. Deepak Vig, president, Noida unit of Samajwadi Party, also led a protest outside the city magistrate’s office. “Our leader Akhilesh Yadav has been illegally detained when he was trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri. The party workers are angry over the issue. The government is muzzling the opposition in the state,” he said. Shahabuddin, Noida president of Congress, said that his party workers protested at the city magistrate’s office. “We made a sit-in protest and demanded immediate release of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi. A police team reached the spot and detained us. Nearly 17 party workers were later released from police station,” he said. Rajesh S, deputy commissioner of police, Noida, said some protesters were detained from the spot. “They were released later. No case was registered against them,” he said. Uma Shankar Singh, Noida city magistrate, said that he has received the memorandums from different groups over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. “We will forward these memorandums to the government. The protest was peaceful,” he said.

Hindustan Times

04-10-2021

Noida