Tractors converge on Delhi for rally
25,000 tractors from UP, U’khand; 12,000 from Amritsar, 10,000 from Doaba to take part
Chandigarh/Ghaziabad, Jan. 24:
More batches of farmers from Punjab on Sunday set out for Delhi to participate in the proposed tractor parade on January 26.
Farmer unions protesting the Centre’s three farm laws had said they would go ahead with their tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day. They had announced to take out the tractor parade on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi. A batch of 500 tractorstrolleys left Amritsar and several groups of growers from Phagwara, Hoshiarpur and other places of Punjab moved towards the national capital to take part of the tractor parade, farmer leaders said.
Kisan Sangharsh Union leader Baldev Singh Verka in Amritsar said, “Today as many as 500 more tractor trolleys left for Delhi to join the tractor parade. Each tractor-trolley will carry 20 persons along with bedding and eating arrangement for fourteen hour-long journey to Delhi”.
He said on Saturday, around seven hundred tractor trolleys had left for Delhi. Gurbachan Singh Chabba, spokesperson of the Kisan Sangarsh Committee said so far, around 12,000 tractor and trolleys had already left Amritsar and Tarn districts. While most of the tractor convoys from Doaba region had left for Delhi on Friday and Saturday, many left on Sunday also to take part in
the tractor parade, said Satnam Singh Sahni, General Secretary Bharti Kisan Union (Doaba). Sahni, who returned here from Delhi’s Singhu border on Saturday night to further mobilise farmers for the parade. He said a total of around 10,000 tractors from Doaba region would join the parade to highlight agitating farmers’ demands and the “stubborn” attitude of the central government towards them.
Around 25,000 tractors from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will participate in the ‘kisan parade’ on January 26, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Saturday.
Farmers moving towards UP Gate from the two states on their tractor trolleys
were intercepted by police in different districts but farmers will arrive here at every cost, he said.
“Around 25,000 tractors would arrive here and a tractor rally would be brought out on Republic Day. Apart from the districts of western Uttar Pradesh, farmers would take out rallies in every district,” Tikait said in a statement. “No political person will be allowed to participate,” the BKU national spokesperson said. District administrations are sending notices to farmers and mounting pressure on them not to participate in the rallies citing Covid-19 norms and section 144 of the CrPC, he claimed.
Meanwhile, authorities in some Haryana districts close to the national capital
have issued advisories against unnecessary travel towards Delhi over the next couple of days in view of a January 26 tractor parade by protesting farmer unions.
On Sunday, thousands of tractors were seen plying on the highways in the state heading towards Delhi, resulting in traffic congestion at several points on the GT Road, a police officer in Karnal said.
The Haryana Police issued an advisory stating that in view of the security and traffic arrangements for Republic Day and the proposed tractor parade, there would be disruptions in vehicular movement on the national highway from Karnal and Rohtak towards Delhi during January 25-27.