WILL HELP TRACE MISSING FARMERS, SAYS CM KEJRIWAL
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday released a list with names of 115 persons who have been arrested and kept in different jails across the city over the past few days in connection with the Republic Day violence, and said that the move will be a step in tracing those who, according to various farmers’ unions, have gone missing from protest from over the past one week.
“Our government will make every effort to trace the protesters... and I will even speak to the Lt Governor and the Central government if the need arises,” he said. The move comes a day after a delegation from the legal team of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha met Kejriwal and gave him a list of 29 missing farmers.
{ ARVIND KEJRIWAL } DELHI CM
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday released a list with names of 115 persons who have been arrested and kept in different jails across the city over the past few days in connection with the Republic Day violence, and said the move will be a step in tracing those who, according to various farmers’ unions, have gone missing from protest from over the past one week.
Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said the Delhi government will extend all possible help to trace these farmers, and, if the need arises, he will approach Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and the central government for their help.
“We are releasing a list of 115 protesters who were arrested by police in relation to the Republic Day incident and are in different jails in the city. Our government will make every effort to trace the protesters who are missing and I will even speak to the Lt Governor and the Central
government if the need arises,” Kejriwal said.
The move comes a day after a delegation from the legal team of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella platform of about 40 farmer unions protesting against the farm laws at Delhi borders for over two months, met Kejriwal and gave him a list of 29 missing farmers.
“I can understand the pain and suffering of these people,
who are unable to connect to their family members and children, are going through. It is the responsibility of every government to find the missing people and intimate their families regarding the same. Many farmer unions have also reached out to the Delhi government and me,” Kejriwal said.
On Sunday, SKM said that more than 100 people were missing since the tractor parade on Republic Day that descended in. The union has formed a committee to look into the issue, which seeks to compile information on the “missing persons” to able to initiate formal action with the authorities. The six-member committee has urged people to share information on missing persons on the phone number 8198022033.
“The people whose family members are missing can look at this list to know if their family members are among those arrested. If yes, they will get to know the jail that they have been put in. I hope that many people who have gone missing will be traced through this list,” Kejriwal added.
Since the beginning of the farmers’ protest, the Delhi government has show support to farmers’ protest. It also provided basic facilities of water, sanitation and food at almost all the major protest sites in Delhi. In December, Kejriwal had visited Singhu border thrice to meet the farmers. In January, Kejriwal announced that the AAP will be fighting elections in six states in the coming two years. These states include Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh from where a majority of fame era have come to protest against the farm laws.
Kulwant Singh Sandhu, general secretary of Jamhuri Kisan Sabha in Punjab, said, “We welcome that Delhi Chief Minister has promptly acted on our request for locating the missing farmers. We requested him in his capacity as the CM and not as a political leader.”
“We have already uploaded a list of all the 122 people arrested in the cases on our (Delhi Police) website, which is a public platform. The list has names of the arrested persons, their residential address, age, name of the police station and the FIR number in which they have been arrested. Any individual can access the list by visiting our website. In case, anyone still has any doubts about the arrested persons, they can directly seek assistance from the concerned district control room number or visit the police stations concerned,” said Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal.
I will even speak to the Lt Governor and the Central government if the need arises.