Hundreds of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists blocked the roads leading to Delhi and Saharanpur here for nearly five hours on Thursday.Siege laid to National Highway 1 was finally lifted at 9.20pm, after the assurance of a meeting on Friday with chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The blockade started soon after a rally at Pipli’s new grain
market, where farmer leaders alleged that the Centre had failed to implement welfare schemes for the agriculture sector. Scores courted arrest and were detained at the police lines. By the evening, farmers moved towards National Highway 1 and blocked traffic.As the protesters park their tractors in the middle of the road, police diverted the NH-1 traffic to link roads from Umri Chowk and Shahbad, leading to traffic jams at several places.
Deputy commissioner Mandeep Brar and superintendent of police Parul Kush Jain reached the spot and invited senior BKU leaders, including the union’s national spokesman Rakesh Tikait, Haryana unit president Gurnam Singh and Punjab unit leader Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, for talks to the PWD rest house.In the meeting, where inspector general of police Balbir Singh and other officials of Kurukshetra district were present, a compromise was struck, for now.
Announcing the lifting of the road blockade, Haryana BKU president Gurnam Singh said, “We have been assured that Hooda would meet us and then apprise the prime minister about our demands. But our activists would continue a dharna along the highway, in front of Parakeet Resort, till our issues are resolved.” The district authorities were not available for comment, though BKU leaders apologised to the general public for causing great inconvenience due to their protest but blamed the Centre for “forcing them to adopt the method”. Earlier, at the grain market rally, Tikait said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had assured a delegation of farmers on March 8 last year that various demands of farmers would be accepted soon. “But now, the Centre is not ready to even discuss these issues, forcing the farming community to launch an agitation.” Lakhowal said that issues such as pension schemes, separate budget for agriculture on the lines of railways, MSP for all crops and loan waiver for the farmers, were pending. Deputy commissioner Mandeep Brar and superintendent of police Parul Kush Jain reached the spot and invited senior BKU leaders, including the union’s national spokesman Rakesh Tikait, Haryana unit president Gurnam Singh and Punjab unit leader Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, for talks to the PWD rest house.In the meeting, where inspector general of police Balbir Singh and other officials of Kurukshetra district were present, a compromise was struck, for now.
Announcing the lifting of the road blockade, Haryana BKU president Gurnam Singh said, “We have been assured that Hooda would meet us and then apprise the prime minister about our demands. But our activists would continue a dharna along the highway, in front of Parakeet Resort, till our issues are resolved.” The district authorities were not available for comment, though BKU leaders apologised to the general public for causing great inconvenience due to their protest but blamed the Centre for “forcing them to adopt the method”. Earlier, at the grain market rally, Tikait said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had assured a delegation of farmers on March 8 last year that various demands of farmers would be accepted soon. “But now, the Centre is not ready to even discuss these issues, forcing the farming community to launch an agitation.” Lakhowal said that issues such as pension schemes, separate budget for agriculture on the lines of railways, MSP for all crops and loan waiver for the farmers, were pending.
