The Delhi Police on Friday started removing the barricades and concertina wires it had put in place at the anti-farm laws protest site at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
Multiple layers of iron and cement barricades, and at least five layers of concertina wires were put up last year, and further strengthened after the January 26 violence this year during the farmers’ protest against the three contentious farm laws.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Priyanka Kashyap said Friday, “The process of removing barricades on NH-9 has been started. The temporarily barricading is being removed to ease out vehicular movement. However, the National Highway 24 was already opened for the traffic.”
The opening of the road stretch would help thousands of commuters in Ghaziabad, Delhi, Noida as well as those travelling between the national capital and interiors of Uttar Pradesh to Meerut and beyond.
Police officials and labourers were also seen removing iron nails that were studded on the NH9 at Ghazipur, where hundreds of protesters, chiefly belonging to the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), have been occupying a road stretch since November 2020.
The BKU is a participant of the anti-farm laws movement spearheaded by farmers collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).
The removal of barricades comes after the October 21 Supreme Court direction that called for unblocking of roads which have remained out of bounds for commuters due to the protests at Delhi’s border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.
While the protesting farmers have been claiming that the three laws enacted last year are against their interest, the Centre has been saying these legislations are pro-farmer.
Thousands of farmers have been camping at the three borders points,Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, protesting the Centre’s three farm laws since November 26, 2020.
About the removal of blockades at the Tikri Border on Thursday night, a senior police officer had said that some layers of barricades that were placed by the police have been removed.
The Supreme Court on October 21 had said that farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three farms laws have the right to agitate but they cannot block roads indefinitely.
