Farmers Movement Archive

We stand vindicated, say farm unions as cops begin removing barricades at farmers' protest sites

With Delhi Police beginning to remove barricades at two farmer protest sites -- Tikri and Ghazipur -- farm union leaders on Friday said the move vindicated their stand that they never blocked roads at the city border points.Also read: Barricades put up by Delhi Police, not farmers: BKU after SC order to unblock roadsPolice start removing barricades at Ghazipur farmers’ protest siteBarricades removed at Tikri borderFarmer leaders said any decision to entirely clear both the carriageways at the protest sites would be taken by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).They, however, said way would be made for traffic to move in the coming days.Delhi Police's decision comes days after a Supreme Court hearing that saw farmer unions argue that the police were responsible for the blockade at the city's borders.Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) office-bearers said police and not farmers had blocked roads, adding that they are being "reopened on the directions of the Supreme Court".In light of the removal of barricades at Ghazipur border protest site, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said, “The future course of the ongoing farmers' protest will be decided by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which is leading the movement against the three farm laws.”Senior farmer leader and SKM member Darshan Pal said false allegations were being levelled against farmers that they had blocked roads, which had been rejected by them from day one.Pal said that at Singhu border, farmers had occupied the portion of road which is already closed for traffic due to construction of a flyover.“Now, the exercise of removal of barricades by the police clearly proves our point that it was the police who had blocked roads and not the farmers. We never created any problem. Any bottleneck from our side will also be cleared for traffic movement,” Pal told PTI. PTI

The Tribune

2021-10-30

New Delhi