BKU activists stage demonstration, blocks highways against farm laws

| | Lucknow
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BKU activists stage demonstration, blocks highways against farm laws

Saturday, 28 November 2020 | PNS | Lucknow

After failing to enter the national capital due to deployment of a heavy force besides the sealing of all the entry points on Thursday, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists blocked several highways and roads in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in the western parts of the state on Friday.

They came on road in support of the farmers of Punjab who were marching to New Delhi in protest against the new farm laws.

Protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws and the police action on the agitating farmers, the BKU activists blocked the Delhi-Dehradun National Highway at Nawla Kothi in Muzaffarnagar district.

Similar roadblocks were reported from Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Bijnor in western UP. 

In Baghpat, BKU activists blocked traffic on the Sonipat highway using tractors and raised slogans against the new farm laws.

The BKU had given a call to stage protests on the national highways of the state after which traffic routes had been diverted in the district.

SP of Baghpat, Abhishek Singh, said magistrates and police in strength were deployed in Nivada area which shares border with Haryana to ward off any incident.

The local farmer leaders have also been approached in this regard, he added.

The BKU activists and farmers blocked the Yamuna Expressway by squatting on the road which led to a massive traffic jam. A wedding procession was stuck in the jam for several hours. The blockade prevented traffic movement from Agra to Mathura.

In Lucknow too, the BKU supporters blocked the Lucknow-Sultanpur and Lucknow-Barabanki highway for some time. Due to heavy deployment of police personnel, the situation remained under control as the administrative machinery was already on alert after a call for holding the protests was given by the BKU.

All the Delhi-UP borders have been barricaded and sealed in Noida and Ghaziabad while additional security forces have been deployed, police officials claimed.

BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait told reporters on Friday that they were supporting the farmers of Punjab and Haryana and they would block the highways till the farmers’ demands were met.

BKU state vice-president Harnam Singh Verma, who led a protest in Naubasta Kala under Chinhat police station in Lucknow on Friday morning, claimed that farmers would soon be staging a protest at the Sadar tehsil in support of their demands.

“We will continue our struggle till the time our demands are met. We are ready to get arrested,” he said.

Meanwhile, ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said police personnel had been deployed in view of the farmers’ call to ensure law and order was maintained in the state.

There was no impact of the farmers’ protest in Lucknow, Kumar said.

However, as the Delhi-Haridwar stretch on the Delhi-Dehradun Highway was shut due to the protest, long queues of vehicles were witnessed.

 

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