Farmers blocked route from Delhi to Ghaziabad on the DME side for 12 hours while calling for the Bharat bandh
Thousands of commuters were stranded in roadblocks on the Uttar Pradesh border on Friday as protesting farmers blocked the Delhi-bound road to Ghaziabad on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) for 12 hours while on their Barat bandh fence. Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi-UP border since November 28, 2020, demanding their application for the repeal of the three in-farm laws and the new subsidy law (MSP). Residents of Kaushambi have raised concerns about growing road problems since the closure of DME last year.DME commuters on Friday used the Anand Vihar-Kaushambi border and the Hindon canal to travel to Delhi. In the evening there was chaos but the main road was in operation at 6.45 pm. There was heavy traffic and heavy traffic during the peak hours as farmers closed the DME road
“As a result of DME infiltration, thousands of vehicles are passing through our area and disrupting the lives of our residents. There is so much traffic on our inner roads that even older people find it difficult to cross over. It is time for the authorities to intervene to resolve the problem. There is an hour-long riot every day in Kaushambi,” said VK Mittal, president of the Kaushambi resident’s association.
Farmers planned to stay for 12 hours long where they played drums and celebrated Holi on the expressway. They closed the driveway, and in the afternoon threatened to block the road demanding the release of Judhvir Singh, secretary-general of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), by Gujarat police. The video was circulated by BKU on social media where Singh was seen holding a press conference in Gujarat when he was picked up by police.
"He was holding a press conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat when the police arrived and took him away. After that at UP Gate, we decided that the traffic would be permanently closed until he was released. However, in the evening, the Ahmedabad police released him and at UP Gate we cleared the clear road at around 6 pm,” said Dharmendra Malik, BKU's media officer.
Police officers at Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad was not found despite repeated attempts to give the numbers given to the Ahmedabad city control room. Farmers during a Bharat bandh call on Friday also tried to block traffic on Delhi-Meerut Road.
“They had a symbolic protest and later submitted a list of demands. The road was not blocked in Duhai and the protesters left after handing over the memorandum. The DME lane was also restored this evening by protesters at UP Gate,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, Regional Magistrate, Ghaziabad.
Ramanand Kushwaha, the (traffic) police chief, Ghaziabad, said normal traffic had been returned to Expressway at 6 pm on Friday and normalcy would continue. The Ghaziabad-Delhi highway was blocked by farmers as they had been camping there since December 3 last year. As a result, thousands of passengers continue to cross Kaushambi and the Hindon road to Delhi.
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