Highway siege hassles commuters
The sit-in in Haryana, which started at noon, passed off peacefully as farmers lifted blockades after three hours
Thousands of farmers on foot, two-wheelers, tractors and in cars poured out of the hinterlands and staged sitins at various state and national highways in Haryana on Sunday, blocking the traffic for about three hours to express their anger against the Centre’s three agriculture Bills.
The sit-in began at noon as farmers started parking their vehicles in the middle of the highways. The police and civil administration, already under direction to deal with the agitating farmers with “patience”, didn’t stop the protesters from reaching the dharna sites.
Over three-hours later and after having aired their anger and demonstrating unity, the farmers lifted the road blockades. The agitation ended on a peaceful note with police exercising restraint and farmers also refraining from provoking the law enforcement agencies.
But the protest caused inconvenience to commuters even as the police personnel, who had been on their toes since Saturday evening, diverted the traffic to alternative roads.
Sunday’s protest was held 10 days after police lathicharged agitating farmers at Pipli in Kurukshetra. Following the incident, farmers staged sit-in protests in every district until Saturday. The undercurrent of the police action was visible as thousands of farmers, especially in Northern and central Haryana, came out in support of stir spearheaded by Bhartiya Kisan Union led by Gurnam Singh Charuni.
“The protests were peaceful and over 17 farmers’ unions participated. The next course of
action will be decided later,” Haryana BKU chief Charuni said, urging farmers to also support the nationwide stir on September 25. BKU received a huge support from farmers in Kurukshetra as farmers held sit-ins at five locations and almost all the state and national highways.
Backed by commission agents, farmers blocked most of the roads in Rohtak, Jind, Sonepat, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, and Hisar. The farmers also blocked Ambala-Roorkee, Ambala-Panchkula, Jind-Delhi, Ambala-Kaithal, Karnal-LadwaShahbad, Karnal-Assandh and
Kurukshetra-Pehowa road, Rohtak-Panipat, Rohtak-Hisar, JindDelhi, Jind-Kaithal, Jind-Patiala, Dadri-Jhajjar, Sirsa-Fatehabad raods. The farmers, however, did not block the Delhi-Chandigarh national highway.
Support from political quarters
Apart from the Congress and Indian National Lok Dal, the MLAs of Jannayak Janta Party, the coalition partner of the BJP in Haryana, also reached at the protests sites and extended support to the farmers.
JJP’s Shahbad MLA Ram Karan Kala met the protesting farmers while another JJP MLA Jogi Ram Sihag joined the agitating farmers. Independent MLA from Meham, Balraj Kundu, visited dharna sites in Rohtak, Meham and Charkhi Dadri.
Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja, in a statement said, “September 20 will go down as a black day in the history of India. The BJP government has hit the very soul of the nation in the form of Bills.”