Commuters Demand Action As Farmers' Protest Causes Massive Traffic Snarls In Delhi-NCR

Delhi-NCR has been witnessing huge traffic jams amid heightened security due to the famers' Delhi Chalo march which has posed a lot of difficulties for commuters.

Commuters around the Delhi-NCR regions have been struggling with heavy traffic jams as a result of the stringent curbs due to the farmers' 'Delhi Chalo' march. The police authorities have placed multiple layers of barricades on the Tikri, Singhu, and Ghazipur borders to prevent the farmers from marching into the capital.  As a result, traffic movement of the capital has been impacted adversely and the vehicles have been crawling at snail pace amid the strike.

A commuter said that he had been struck in traffic for an hour and urged the police to stop the farmers. "We have been stuck in traffic for an hour. The farmers should be strictly stopped otherwise they will destroy everything. Common people are facing a lot of problems. Farmers are enjoying all of this, the majority of them are goons. Government should take strict actions against them," he said.

Another commuter spoke about the difficulties the people are facing and claimed that the AAP and Congress leaders are only misguiding everyone. "Even before this, they (farmers) were given whatever they wanted. The govt is still ready to fulfill their demands...Farmers and the Govt should have discussions and find a problem to this solution," he said.

A commuter suggested that the farmers should have peaceful discussions with the government. "We are facing a lot of difficulties. Farmers should have peaceful discussions with the government. Only 1-2 farmer leaders should go and put forward their demands. The way these farmers are protesting is not right," he said.

The farmer leaders are set to hold a third round of talks with the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Arjun Munda, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, at 5 pm in Chandigarh on February 15. 

Meanwhile, farmers of Bhartiya Kisan Union staged a 'rail roko' protest in Patiala at Rajpura Railway Station to protest Haryana police's action on the protesting farmers. On the second day of the protest, the Haryana police had fired tear gas shells at the protestors at the Shambhu border. The security personnel had also used drones to airdrop tear gas shells on the farmers. Following this, many protestors were injured and a few of them were even seen flying kites to bring down the drones. 

Over 200 farmer unions from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have joined hands to protest against the centre and began the Delhi Chalo 2.0 march towards the national capital to demand a law on the minimum support price for their crops, loan waivers, pensions, and dismissal of the cases filed against farmers during their first protest in 2020.