Going firm on their demand for repeal of the new agri laws, hundreds of farmers spent another night in the cold and withstood an early morning drizzle on Thursday on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at their heavily-secured protest site at Ghazipur.
November 26 would mark one year of the ongoing farmers' protests at Delhi's border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.
Farmers can be seen playing kabaddi at a protest site at the Ghazipur border near New Delhi, November 30, 2021.
The wrestlers protesting at the Jantar Mantar, about two kilometres from Parliament, said that they will go ahead with their 'Mahila Mahapanchayat' near the new building at any cost.
Even media persons covering the agitation manage to reach the protest sites with difficulty as they first have to pass through checking and then cross multiple layers of barricading. A Bharatiya Kisan Union office-bearer at Ghazipur border, which now resembles a highly-secured fortress, said despite the odds, supporters from far-off places are reaching the site to express solidarity with farmers.
The visuals on social media also showed huge traffic on the National Highway-24 and Sarai Kale Khan where vehicles were crawling. Water from the overflowing Yamuna river reached ITO, a key route to commute from east Delhi to central Delhi and Connaught Place.
Farmers protesting the Centre's new agri laws will observe 'Sadbhavna Diwas' on Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary on January 30 and hold a day-long fast, farm leaders said on Friday, and asserted that their agitation will gain strength as farmers in large numbers will join them in the days ahead.
These "kisan mahapanchayat" are scheduled to be held in Haryana's Karnal, Rohtak, Sirsa and Hisar districts, and Maharashtra's Akola and Rajasthan's Sikar, he said.
Farmers flaunting colourful turbans, sunshades, long beards and twirling moustaches danced on tractors, distributed sweets and hugged each other to mark the occasion that seemed like a festival.
According to the police, Delhi-Ghazipur border remains closed for traffic due to the farmers' protests. The commuters are suggested to take alternate routes via Anad Vihar, Chilla, DND, Apsara, bhopra and Loni borders, it added.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Bijendra Kumar Yadav said farmers have formally declared that they will start returning home from Saturday onwards, but it is not a time bound exercise as their movement will keep progressing through the day.
With farmers ending their over a year-long agitation, the protesters on Thursday started dismantling tents and collecting their items from Singhu border, which had become their home away from home, even as some of them started leaving Ghazipur border despite the Samyukta Kisan Union giving a call for their departure from December 11.
Multiple layers of iron and cement barricades, and at least five layers of concertina wires were put up last year, and further strengthened after the January 26 violence this year during the farmers' protest against the three contentious farm laws.
Farmers said that they never blocked roads at the Delhi border points.
The most striking aspect of this study was that a large proportion of the Indian population was asymptomatic for COVID infection and the age group 26-35 had the maximum number of asymptomatic people, the researchers said.
'A flower garden is being created on the Delhi-Dabur Tiraha road. This will cover the dirt lying on road stretches, and also emanate fragrance and improve the environment around'
Rakesh Tikait, the 51-year-old Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader from the hinterlands of Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh, welcomed the support from international artistes and activists, including Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, but acknowledged he does not know them.
MPs from 10 Opposition parties on Thursday wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla saying that the situation at Ghazipur border was like that of India-Pakistan border and condition of farmers resembles prisoners in jail.
The police said Ajay, a native of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh who lived in Ghaziabad, was working as a peon at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi-run school for the last 10 years.
Hundreds of farmers, chiefly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, continue to encamp Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border points of Delhi despite "a few" of them being removed after testing positive for COVID-19 and some symptomatic protesters undergoing medication.
'The protesters took out a march carrying black flags. They burnt Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effigy while raising slogans against the three farm laws'
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also issued instructions to book those found involved in facilitating cheating during examinations under the National Security Act, the statement said.
The decision has been taken to "maintain public safety and averting public emergency" under Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017, the official said.
The Uttar Pradesh government is ramping up the inventory of an industrial land bank of an estimated 1,500 acres in the state ahead of the global investors' summit early next year. The state aims to garner private investments of Rs 10 trillion at the January 2023 event. The state government will showcase a proverbial 'ready to allot' menu of industrial land to woo domestic and global corporations.
The suspension of internet services at the three border points and their adjoining areas was imposed at 11 pm on January 29 and was initially effective till 11 pm on January 31.
'We felt it is our responsibility to stand by the farmers' and extend support of the whole of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray saahab'
Farmer outfits on Friday started mobilising more batches of peasants from Haryana and Punjab to head towards Delhi's borders to join the ongoing agitation against agri laws, even as political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal threw their weight behind them.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of almost 40 farmer organisations, wrote a letter to the ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare accepting the Centre's offer for dialogue and proposed December 29 as the next date for the meeting.
'As humans, we must realise that we cannot survive without the environment, rivers, water....'
Jannayak Janta Party leader Digvijay Singh Chautala on Friday called farmer leader Rakesh Tikait a 'true patriot' and said he has always talked about farmers' interests.
As two more bodies were recovered from the accident site on Tuesday, the total number of confirmed dead has climbed to 71, Nepal Army spokesperson Narayan Siwal said.
The Congress, meanwhile, alleged that both the Samajwadi Party and the BJP are hand-in-glove with the criminals and were two sides of the same coin.
The farmers have said the weather will not dampen their spirit and they will continue the protest till their demands are met.
The Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to inform people about road closures and advised them to take alternative routes to avoid inconvenience.
Tikait's tears galvanised people, as on Saturday a large number of farmers and other supporters came to the protest site at the Delhi-UP border from not just his home state of Uttar Pradesh but from Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as well to show solidarity with the movement.
The decision has been taken to 'maintain public safety and averting public emergency' under Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules 2017
Dominic Xavier asks when the Modi Sarkar will heed the plight of the protesting farmers who have been agitating for more than forty days in freezing temperatures.
A government order sent to telecom service providers directed temporary suspension of internet services in areas of Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri, Mukarba Chowk and Nangloi and their adjoining areas in the NCT of Delhi from 12.00 hours to 23.59 hours on the Republic Day, according to the department of telecom.
Land plots filled with wild grasses near Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu protest sites have been converted into well-curated nurseries with a variety of flowers like marigold and rose.
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