Farmers who have been sitting across the national Capital’s border to press for their demands for scrapping Centre’s new farms laws, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address appeared as an attempt to divide and mislead the farmers and said they want a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP).
Meanwhile, farmers camping at Singhu, Tikri, Chilla and Ghazipur border points have led to closure of several routes in Delhi and due to ongoing protest at National Capital’s borders, there was disruption of traffic movement on key routes prompting Delhi Traffic Police to tweet about closed and its alternate routes.
Reacting to the PM's allegations that political rivals were misusing the protest to push their agenda, farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar, member of Sankyut Kisan Morcha said the unions do not allow any political party to use their stage and accused the government of diverting the issue.
“The prime minister's claim that we are being misguided by other political parties is false. It has been a month since we have been protesting at Delhi borders, and we have not offered our platform to any politician. In fact, we have banned them from using our stage. Our protest is not political,” said Kohar.
All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee secretary Avik Saha sought to know why the central government is not giving a legal guarantee on MSP.
Saha said the prime minister on Friday only addressed farmers from six states and wondered why he did not address issues of protesting peasants.
Kohar, who is also the, said during his speech, PM Modi claimed that the three farm laws will benefit farmers, but he did not tell how the new laws will be beneficial for the peasants.
“You cannot go away by saying that it is good law, you will have to prove how it is good for farmers. There should be arguments based on facts,” he said.
However, the protests have led to closure of roads in Delhi, and diversions have also caused traffic congestions. Taking to Twitter on Friday, Delhi Traffic Police said Singhu, Auchandi, Piau Maniyari, Saboli and Mangesh borders were closed for traffic.
“Pl take alternate routes via Lampur,Safiabad,Palla & Singhu school toll tax borders.Traffic has been diverted from Mukarba & GTK road. Pl avoid Outer Ring Rd,GTK road & NH 44,” stated Delhi Traffic Police in a tweet.
In another tweet, the traffic police said Chilla and Ghazipur borders were closed for traffic coming from Noida and Ghaziabad to Delhi.
“People are advised to take alternative route for coming to Delhi via Anand Vihar, DND, Apsara, Bhopra & Loni borders,” it further stated.
In an advisory, the Delhi Traffic Police said NH-44 beyond Singhu Border has been closed for general traffic with effect from Saturday, and diversions have been made accordingly to avoid inconvenience to the public.
According to another advisory, vehicular traffic going to Haryana from NH-44 via Palla red light is being diverted from NIIT to Holambi 100-foot-road and DSIDC 80-foot-road to pass through Lampur border and Safiabad border.
Another diversion is from the U-turn near DSIDC and Singhu village cut towards the Singhu school toll tax.
Vehicular traffic coming from Haryana via Safiabad, Saboli, Pau Maniyari borders is being diverted from the Safiabad More, Saboli More, Ramdev Chowk and sector-A/5 Narela via Raja Harish Chander hospital towards NH-44 to go to Delhi. Vehicles coming from Lampur border are being diverted towards Grain Mandi and then Munim ka Bagh via Harish Chander red light to NH-44.
Vehicular traffic coming from Azadpur Mandi to GTK depot will be diverted from GTK depot towards Rohini. Vehicles coming from Mukandpur to Singhu border will be diverted towards Mukandpur, the advisory stated.