Farmers open service road at Ghazipur border closed for 11 months
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Oct, 2021 10:35 AM
New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) Farmers protesting on the Ghazipur border at Delhi for the last 11 months against the three farm laws enacted by the Centre last year, have started to open the service lane to ease the traffic. They said it is the police who have closed the road and not them. Farmers belonging to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Thursday started removing the tents built on the service road to start the traffic movement.
Farmers have claimed that wrong information is being spread about them in the Supreme Court. "We had never closed the road, we wanted to go to Delhi. The police did not allow us to go across the border," the farmers said.
The farmers have removed the media centre on the Ghazipur border, while they have parked their vehicles near the police barricade.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) is going on at the Singhu border, in which a decision can be taken to open the roads.
The Delhi Meerut Expressway from the Ghaziabad side to Delhi is completely closed due to the farmers' agitation for the last 11 months, due to which lakhs of people are facing problems in commuting every day.
Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court reiterated that farmer groups have the right to protest, but they cannot keep roads blocked indefinitely. The top court sought a response from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, and other farmer unions on a petition filed by a Noida woman.
The Minister while addressing the inaugural session of 'Connect Karo 2021 - Towards Equitable, Sustainable Indian Cities' event, said that there can be no doubt that India's cities "enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology" will be the key to achieving the nation's development objectives.
Meanwhile, India logged 27,254 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 219 Covid deaths in the same time span. The country presently has nearly 3.75 lakh active cases.
At a virtual Covid-19 review meeting, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special efforts were made to reach out to the government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said with the case load decreasing, people had started being lax about wearing masks, which the Health Department should strictly enforce with the help of the police.
Additional Chief Secretary Devendra Singh and Deputy Commissioner of Karnal Nishant Yadav are participating in the meeting. From the farmers side, BKU president Gurunam Singh Chaduni and the state leadership will present their demands.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Balbir Singh Rajewal told the media here after the day-long deliberations with the political parties, except the BJP, that they had told the political parties not to hold big rallies till elections in the state are announced.
