Farmers Movement Archive

Delhi Police lift barricades at Tikri border after three women run over

The Delhi Police on Thursday started removing barricades at the Tikri border with Haryana, where farmers have been protesting for the past 11 months, to resume movement of vehicles on at least one carriageway, senior police officers privy to the development said.They, however, said that it was not immediately clear when the border will be completely opened.The development came on a day three women farmers were killed and two others injured after a truck hit them near the Tikri border.The accident took place on Thursday morning at Pakoda Chowk in Bahadurgarh, where the women were waiting for an autorickshaw to go to Bahadurgarh railway station. They had come to participate in the farmers’ protest, and were returning to their village in Punjab’s Mansa district .Farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have been protesting at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur borders in outer and eastern parts of Delhi against the three contentious farm laws since November last year.After the violence in Delhi during the farmers’ Republic Day (January 26) rally, the Delhi Police put in place multi-layered blockades at the three border protest sites by digging pits, placing iron nails and positioning iron barricades as well as concrete barriers.On Thursday, some video clips were shared on social media sites showing cranes breaking the concrete platforms and removing the jersey barriers installed on the Delhi side of the border.When asked for a confirmation, Delhi deputy commissioner of police (outer) Parvinder Singh said, “We have started the process of removing the blockades with the objective of opening the border and resume traffic on at least one carriageway. We actually began this process a couple of days ago. As of now, we cannot say when exactly the restoration of traffic will happen because removing the entire blockade will take some time.”Police officers in know of the development said that senior officers are in talks with the farm leaders, as well their counterparts in Haryana Police on taking the final decision to open the border.They also attributed the removal of the blockades to the recent remarks that the Supreme Court made on blocking of the Delhi borders by the protesting farmers.Leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, could not be reached for comment on the latest development.

Hindustan Times

29-10-2021

Delhi