Farmers barricaded Delhi's borders again

New Delhi, Dt
The issue of opening Delhi's Tikri and Ghazipur borders in protest of the Centre's three agricultural laws took a new turn on Saturday evening. Following the Supreme Court's order to reopen Delhi's borders, Delhi Police had by Saturday morning removed barricades from the Tikri and Ghazipur borders, including cement barricades, barbed wire fences and roadblocks, and started transporting small vehicles. But by evening all of a sudden the farmers had put up barricades on these roads and closed the roads. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha also announced that Delhi's borders would not be reopened and the picketing would continue until the central government withdraws agricultural laws.
After the Supreme Court slammed the farmers' leaders, the police finally removed barricades from a carriageway on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on the Ghazipur border on Friday and from the Tikri border by Saturday morning, including cement barricades, barbed wire fences and roadblocks. Pictures of this went viral in the media and on the internet. At this time, all the farmers' organizations, including the United Farmers Front, said nothing. However, after the police removed the barricades at the Tikri border, the farmers' organizations became active and set up iron barricades and blocked the roads at both the places. He also announced that the central government would not withdraw agricultural laws and would open all the borders of Delhi only after the farmers' agitation was over.
Locals breathed a sigh of relief when the roads were finally reopened in 11 months after the roadblocks at Ghazipur and Tikri border were removed earlier. After a meeting between the farmer leaders and the police, the police removed obstacles including cement barricades from the Tikri border. At the Delhi border, farmer leaders have allowed small vehicles like two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers to ply on these roads. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Parvinder Singh said the road from Delhi to Haryana has been reopened after the removal of barricades including cement barricades, iron nails and barbed wire fences after a meeting with farmer leaders and traffic movement has resumed here.
He added that the farmers' leaders had said that the traffic of small vehicles including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers would be allowed to pass through this road only from 9 am to 8 pm. However, we have kept this road open for 3 hours. People will be able to pass through this road with small vehicles.
The opening of the Tikri border will bring relief to thousands of motorists in Bahadurgarh and Delhi as well as thousands of people traveling between Haryana and Delhi and Rajasthan. Police removed most obstacles from the National Highway-9 Delhi-Meerut Expressway Fly over, but the tent and other temporary structures of the appearanters are still status quo.
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said the future programs of the movement would be decided by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the apex body of the farmers' organization. However, some farmer leaders said that once the barriers on Delhi's borders were completely removed, farmers wanted to take tractors to Delhi. He also said that the way was open for talks with the central government. BKU spokesperson Saurabh Upadhyay said, "If the government wants to resolve the stalemate, it should discuss it with the farmers and we are ready for it." But if it wants to continue the farmers' movement, we are ready for it for a longer period of time. It has been 11 months since this movement.
The apex court had on October 31 told agitating farmers on the Delhi border that they had the right to agitate, but could not block roads indefinitely. With this, the Supreme Court directed the farmer leaders and the police to remove the roadblocks.