Delhi police remove barricades from farmers’ protest site at Tikri border  

Barricades, nails and concrete blocks placed by Delhi police to prevent the entry of protesting farmers into the national capital last November, are being removed from Tikri border to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.

On Thursday, huge cranes and bulldozers were seen removing the massive blockages put up on the Delhi-Bahadurgarh road.

The action comes days after the Supreme Court while recognizing the right of farmers to protest, rapped them for inconveniencing citizens by blocking traffic.

The farmers, however, had told the court that it was the police which had put roadblocks to thwart their entry and were causing inconvenience to commuters.

According to reports, Haryana’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajeev Arora, police chief PK Agarwal and other senior officials accompanied a delegation of farmers to Tikri border and found it to be sealed by the Delhi police.

Also read: Haryana: Two women farmers killed after truck hits them at Tikri border

After a meeting between Delhi police and authorities of Haryana, both answerable to BJP bosses, it was decided to clear the blockades by using bulldozers and earthmovers.

The barricades were moved the same day Delhi police chief Rakesh Asthana in a media interview asserted that it was not the police, but the farmers who have blocked the road by pitching tents at the border.

“We have not closed the road to Delhi. When there was a law-and-order problem, the barricading was done in Delhi, it was necessary. Since then, tents have been put up on the other side of the border due to which the roads are closed,” he said.

Farmers have been protesting at the borders of the national capital for almost 11 months, demanding a repeal of the contentious farm laws passed by the Centre.

In February, days after violence broke out in the national capital on Republic Day during a tractor rally by farmers, Delhi police stationed its police personnel behind a fortified wall at the conflict zones of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur – of roads embedded with nails, concrete walls erected between barriers and multi-layered barricading.