Complete Blockade at Ghazipur Border to Protest Against UP Police Action Against Farmers

New Delhi: Farmers blocked both carriageways of the Delhi-Meerut expressway at the Ghazipur border for nine hours on Tuesday, December 22, in protest against the Uttar Pradesh administration, which they allege has been restricting the participation of the protesters from the state and nearby Uttarakhand in the ongoing agitations at the outskirts of the national capital.

The protesters lifted their blockade at one of the carriageways at 4 in the evening only “after receiving assurances” from the UP administration that the “concerns of the UP farmers’ unions have been addressed.” The farmers continue to stage a traffic blockade at the road leading from Ghaziabad to Delhi.

Farmers, mainly hailing from western regions of Uttar Pradesh and pockets of Uttarakhand, have been staying put at the border gate that connects Delhi with UP for nearly a month now to pressure the Centre to repeal the controversial farm laws and bring in a legislation to ensure minimum support price (MSP) over their crop produce.

On Tuesday, alleging that many of the trolleys carrying farmers from different districts in the two states have been stopped by the UP police at multiple checking points since late last night, the farmers at the Ghazipur border intensified their agitation.

Also read: At Ghazipur Border Protest, ‘Busting’ BJP’s Claims Over Farm Laws Keeps Passions High

“Many of the farmers travelling from Pilibhit (in Uttar Pradesh) were stopped at the district borders of Rampur between 12 and 1 last night. They were arrested. Police ne badtameezi ki unke sath (The police misbehaved with them),” Tejinder Singh Virk, president, Terai Kisan Sangathan told NewsClick. “We have been getting reports from Uttar Pradesh of such harassment against the farmers travelling to join the protests in Delhi since many days,” he added.

NewsClick has earlier reported about farmers’ ordeals in UP due to heavy police surveillance in the BJP-ruled state in the backdrop of the farmers’ agitation.

“We had given a 24-hour ultimatum day before yesterday to the UP administration regarding this; we were also assured last night by the state home secretary regarding the same,” said Virk, after farmers staged a chakka jam (trafic stoppage). “In the morning at seven, we once again appealed to them to allow the farmers to travel but our tractors and trolleys continued to be stopped at checking points,” he argued.

Singh, who is part of the coordination committee at Ghazipur border which comprises 6-7 unions that take crucial decisions, stressed that the farmers were forced to stage the full blockade of the expressway. “We patiently observed the developments in UP for many days; our protest is still continuing peacefully,” he said.

A delegation led by Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Ghazipur, met the said committee members on Tuesday afternoon and “assured” the farmers’ union that “tractors and trolleys will be allowed to move now in the state,” a farmer leader said, while addressing the protesters from stage at 3.30 PM.

Resultantly, the leaders appealed to the protesters to clear the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway. The farm leaders also said that they have agreed to intimate the local administration of any further blockade of any road in the future “to avoid inconvenience to the public.”

Habib Chaudhary, 40, of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) had earlier in the morning told NewsClick that around 20 trolleys were stopped at three different checking points by the Uttar Pradesh police since last night. “Those coming from Meerut are currently stopped near Modinagar; while, those from Moradabad have been stopped at two checkpoints in Hapur district,” he said.

Chaudhary, who is part of the Meerut mandal of BKU-Tikait, added that the farmers had started from their respective districts on Sunday. “Now, we are getting to know that the police are not even allowing them to cook or roam freely at the spot where they are being stopped,” he said. In protest, tractors were parked in the middle of the Ghazipur flyover on Tuesday morning since 7 o’clock.

Also read: ‘Not Only Agriculture, Informal Sector Too Will Get Decimated’

Following the blockade, Additional CP Traffic, Outer Range, New Delhi, took to Twitter in the morning to announce that the road has been closed leading from Delhi to Ghaziabad. “Traffic has been diverted to Nizamuddin, Khattha, Akshardham & Gazipur chowk for onward journey via Anand Vihar, Apsara, Bhopara & DND borders,” he had tweeted.

Sukhdev Singh, 30, from Lakhimpur district told NewsClick that despite the blockade, ambulances and those with emergency cases were being allowed to pass through. “We will continue to block this road till our comrades are allowed to join the protests,” he said.

According to him, no vehicle adorning “farm union stickers” or “flags” was being allowed to pass through the checking points by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait had maintained since morning that it was not the protesters who had blocked the other carriageway but the police. Condemning the attempts of UP police to not allow farmers’ movement to Delhi, he, had said that “if police lifts the barricading on the now blocked road then the protesters will allow traffic movement”.