The Delhi Police on Sunday proposed four routes from Ghazipur, Singhu, Chilla, and Tikri borders for the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day. The move comes after farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar said that Delhi Police has given them permission for the tractor parade on January 26 after protesting unions met the police. The Delhi Police had held a series of talks with farmers to cancel farmer’s Republic Day tractor parade.
The Police sources said routes will be like dedicated loops and farmer leaders will have to agree that they will follow them strictly. There will be multiple routes for farmers’ tractor rally. The Delhi Police sourced expected traffic spillover in Delhi-NCR during the rally hours.
On Saturday, the Delhi Police granted permission to the farmers for the tractor parade on January 26 but on the condition that they will start only after the completion of the official parade on Rajpath. Earlier, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain an application by the Centre through Delhi Police to stop protesting farmer unions from carrying out tractor rally into the Capital on Republic Day.
The police informed that the farmers from the Singhu border will head towards Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, Kanjhawla and then to Bawana; finally returning back to the border. The farmers from the Tikri border will take out the rally towards Nangloi, Najafgarh, Dhansa, Badli and finally back to Tikri border. Meanwhile, the farmers from the Ghazipur border will head towards Ghaziabad, Duhai and then head back to Ghazipur. While the Delhi police and Gurugram police have not yet taken any decision on the farmers camping at the Shahjahanpur border.
Thousands of tractors are headed for Delhi from Punjab and Haryana to participate in the parade. Kulwant Singh Sandhu, general secretary of the Punjab Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, said around 2.5-3 lakh tractors will take to the roads near the protest sites. Sandhu assured that the parade will be absolutely peaceful from farmers end.
In view of the Republic Day celebrations, the Delhi Police has deployed five-layer security in and around the city. Over 40,000 police, ITBP and CRPF personnel will be deployed at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders.
Since November 28 last year, farmers from Punjab Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting against the the three farm laws at several Delhi border points, including Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, and demanding to repealed completely.