After Ghaziabad administration asked protesting farmers to vacate UP Gate protest site by Thursday midnight tension is brewing in the area with union leader Rakesh Tikait remaining adamant and said he would commit suicide but won’t end the stir.
A confrontation was building up at the UP Gate in Ghazipur bordering Delhi with heavy security deployed while frequent power cuts were witnessed at the protest site, where Bharatiya Kisan Union members, led by Tikait, are staying put since November 28.
However, two days after the tractor parade turned violent the crowd at the protest sites in Delhi’s Singhu and Tikri borders was visibly thin on Thursday. Farmer unions said it was because the protesters, who had come to Delhi to take part in January 26 march, have returned home.
The “verbal” communication from the district administration to BKU comes after three farmers union withdrew their protest over the violence on Republic Day.
“Ghaziabad DM Ajay Shankar Pandey has communicated to the protestors camping at the UP Gate at Delhi border to vacate the spot by tonight or the administration will remove them,” a district official told PTI.
However, Tikait, the BKU’s national spokesperson, condemned the Uttar Pradesh Government and police for the move. “I will commit suicide but won’t end protest until the farm bills are repealed,” Tikait said in a message to PTI, claiming threat to his life.
He also alleged that armed goons were sent to the protest site. In a separate statement issued by BKU media in charge Dharmendra Malik, Tikait was quoted as saying the Uttar Pradesh Police is trying to arrest protesters even when the Supreme Court has found peaceful protests legitimate.
“No violence has taken place at the Ghazipur border but still the UP Government is resorting to policy of suppression. This is the face of the UP Government,” Tikait said.
“Our protest will continue,” he added. Tikait, who is one of the farm leaders named in the Delhi Police’s FIR over the Republic Day violence in the national Capital, said there should be a judicial enquiry into the Red Fort incident. He said his union has socially boycotted Deep Siddhu, who was involved in the incident at the Red Fort on Republic Day.
Additional police personnel were deployed at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders as a preventive measure in the view of the violence on Republic Day that left 394 policemen injured and one protestor dead.
Friday, 29 January 2021 | Staff Reporter/PTI | Ghaziabad
