Farmers break barricades at Ghazipur, enter Delhi

Agitating young members from the farmer protest groups on Tuesday broke the police barricades at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Ghazipur border to enter the national capital, hours ahead of the planned ‘Kisan Gantantra Parade’.

Hundreds of farmers, comprising mostly the youths removed the barricades forcibly, even as senior members in the groups were seen persuading them not to take matters into their hands and protest in peaceful manner.

The youths also defied the conditions put by the farmers unions as they played loud music and rode their tractors at high speed on the highway that connects Delhi with Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi Police have made adequate arrangements for the security on the occasion of the Republic Day.

Earlier in the day, several groups broke the barricades at the Delhi-Haryana’s Singhu and Tikri borders similarly to enter Delhi.

On Monday, the farmers unions said that their tractor parade will start only after the official Republic Day parade on Rajpath concludes. They also claimed that around 2,00,000 tractors were expected to participate in the parade in a show of strength and support.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the several borders of the national capital since November 26 last year demanding repealing of three contentious farm laws passed in September to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for their produce.

Eleven round of talks of the government and the farmers have remained inconclusive as farmers also rejected the government’s proposal to suspend the three farm laws for one and half years. Farmers want a complete roll back of the three laws.