Even as the talks between the government and the agitated farmers are underway, crowd swelled at the border connecting Delhi to Uttar Pradesh in Ghazipur on Thursday after hundreds of tractors entered the area to put pressure on the government to repeal the three contentious farm laws.
Thousands of farmers protesting against the farm laws have laid siege at the Ghazipur border road and on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in a bid to enter the national capital. Pawan Khatana, Bharat Kisan Union’s Delhi-NCR President, arrived with hundreds of tractors to the protest side at noon.
“There is no law and order situation till now. If they try to commit any mischief, we will also use force. Right now, the situation is peaceful. We are merely observing it,” a senior police officer told IANS on condition of anonymity.
The border points in the area continue to remain under heavy police cover with multilayered barricades in place.
In the morning, when the farmers had blocked the expressway, Gayendra Singh, SP (City), Ghaziabad, had said that the police were hopeful that the blockade will end soon on the key road leading to Delhi.
All eyes are now on the ongoing fourth round of talks between the farmers’ unions and the Centre. The third round talks had failed to break the deadlock on Tuesday.
The farmers have been sitting on protest for the last eight days at Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders. Thousands of farmers have been camping at the Singhu border, while several other groups have blocked entry at the Delhi-Haryana border in Tikri, the Delhi-UP border in Ghazipur and the Delhi-UP border in Chilla.
The farmers are demanding that the three farm laws passed by the Parliament in September be repealed, expressing apprehension that they would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the mercy of the big corporates.
The government has, however, maintained that the laws will provide farmers with better opportunities. It has also accused the opposition parties of “misleading” the farmers.
–IANS
