Protesting farmers at the Singhu border on Friday blocked the entry points to the site, which earlier saw traffic movement, to observe Bharat Bandh.
Allow essential services
They also made repeated appeals from the main stage to not block ambulances and essential services during the period.
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Four months into the agitation against Centre’s new farm laws, the protesters recounted the hurdles they had to cross, including tear gas, water cannons and trenches, before reaching Delhi’s borders.
The farmers who have been camping at the Capital’s borders since November 26, demanding a legal guarantee of minimum support price and a repeal of the three farm laws passed by the Centre last year, reiterated that they would not vacate the protest sites till their demands are met.
Kulwant Singh, 70, from Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, said: “Our demands are the same as they were on the day we started our journey to Delhi. We had to overcome water cannons, lathis, trenches and tear gas to reach the border. In the first couple of days, we did not even have proper food to eat. Farmers have overcome so much to reach this point and now it is a given that they are not returning without the laws being repealed.”
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He said that the movement was getting bigger by the day. “Our leaders are now spreading the word across the country and asking people to not vote for BJP as the party only goes against the interests of common people. There is sympathy on the international level as well,” he added.
Harjit Singh, a farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib district, added: “It’s been four months and even we want to return to our villages. But that can only happen if the laws repealed. It’s high time the government listens to us else we will continue to wait here. Four months later we have nothing more to say.”
120 days on...
Stating that the Centre had continued to neglect the ones who feed the country, Balwant Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Moga, said: “It has been 120 days and instead of paying heed to our demands, those in the government have only called us names. There have been 11 meetings with the government but none of the Ministers have been able to give us any concrete answers.”
Claiming that big movements had the power to overthrow governments, Mr. Singh added, “Ideally a ruler should be worried about the interests of the people, but we have a ruler who is not bothered. People of the country, across professions, have stood by us. The Prime Minister should realise that things are not as bad yet and there is still time to rectify and repeal the laws. If needed, we are ready to march to the Parliament as well.”
Heavy police deployment was seen at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border in the view of nation-wide protest called by the farmers on Friday.
‘No violence reported’
“We have deployed extra police force at borders to avoid any law-and-order situation. There was no incident of violence reported,” said an officer.
In the morning, Delhi Police had closed both carriageways of NH-24 passing through Ghazipur border in view of Bharat Bandh. The restrictions remained till the late evening.