After removing barricades and barbed wires from farmers’ protest sites at the Ghazipur and Tikri borders, Delhi Police said that it wanted to “create a positive atmosphere” for people who had been “facing a lot of problems”.
“General public who travel on regular basis was facing a lot of problems due to this, so we decided to open the borders for the sake of their convenience,” Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said as quoted by news agency ANI.
“After holding talks with farm leaders and Uttar Pradesh and Haryana police officials, it was decided to open borders and create a positive atmosphere,” he further said, adding that barricades and barbed wires at the sites of farmers’ protest were also affecting interstate travel.
Bharatiya Kisan Union general secretary Yudhvir Singh said the farmers never wanted to create problems for the general public and only wanted to enter Delhi to raise their voice against the three laws. “It was the Delhi Police that had put these barricades after the January 26 episode. It seems after the SKM’s affidavit in the Supreme Court, Delhi Police has corrected its mistake,” he said.
Assuring the preparedness to tackle any kind of situation in Delhi, Asthana said that the national capital is ready to deal with any situation.
“We will act in a graded manner. We are also preparing to tackle any law and order situation if it arises. We are prepared for any situation. We want to give a message that the situation is normal. I am confident that we’ll handle any situation,” he added.
Pal said at Singhu border, farmers have occupied the portion of road which is already closed for traffic due to construction of a flyover.
Now, the exercise of removal of barricades by the police clearly proves our point that it was the police that have blocked roads and not the farmers. We never created any problem. Any bottleneck from our side will also be cleared for traffic movement, Pal told PTI.
Any decision to entirely clear both carriageways of roads or march towards Delhi will be taken by the SKM, he added.
”So far, there is no call to go to Delhi. Any future course of action will be decided in a meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha,” Pal said.
