Farmers agitating at Ghazipur border cleared one side of the road on Tuesday evening to facilitate the traffic. The road connecting Delhi with Uttar Pradesh was blocked completely by farmers in the morning.
Additional District Magistrate, Ghaziabad, Shailendra Kumar Singh said, “We insisted the farmer leaders to open the Ghazipur road which was closed since morning.” Singh further added, “Several trolleys of farmers have been stopped for checking at many places. We have told the farmer leaders that now onwards all the trolleys will be allowed to pass only after checking.”
Farmers on Tuesday morning blocked Ghazipur border completely as the protest against the new farm laws continued. Traffic from Delhi towards Ghazipur and Ghaziabad on the Delhi-Meerut expressway was affected as both side carriageways were closed.
With the protests at Delhi’s borders showing no signs of slowing down, farmers’ unions also said they would write to members of UK Parliament to stop Prime Minister Boris Johnson from visiting India for the Republic Day celebrations until their demands were met. “UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit India on January 26 for the Republic Day celebrations. We are writing to British MPs asking them to stop the UK PM from visiting India till the Indian government agrees to meet our demands,” said Kulwant Singh Sandhu, a farmer leader at the Singhu Border.
On December 15, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had confirmed that Johnson will be attending India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2021 as the chief guest, adding that it is symbolic of a new era of India-UK ties. Meanwhile, agitating farmers on Monday started a 24-hour long relay hunger strike, with 11 people sitting on strike each day.
Even after several rounds of talks with the government, farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws-Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
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