Last Updated on September 27, 2021 at 2:14 pm
To mark a year of the Centre’s three farm laws, a 10-hour long ‘Bharat Bandh’ has been called by the farmers organization. The bandh began at 6 am today and will continue till 4 pm.
The farmer unions have said that all government and private offices, educational and other institutions, shops, industries and commercial establishments shall be closed across the nation during the strike. All emergency establishments and essential services, including hospitals, medical stores, relief and rescue work and people attending to personal emergencies, will be exempted from the strike.
Traffic has been hit at several places as well as trains have been halted as farmers’ unions have called for nationwide shutdown today. In both Punjab and Haryana highway have been blocked affecting the traffic as well railway tracks have been blocked.
As well as, the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana was blocked too. On the Tikri border, farmers sat on the railway tracks at Bahadurgarh railway station. Since people were witnessed sitting on tracks, Rail operations in Delhi, Ambala and Firozepur divisions have been affected.
More than 20 railway tracks in Delhi were blocked by protesting farmers. According to the Northern railways, around 20 trains in the Ambala and Firozepur division have been impacted.
Moreover, Delhi-Meerut Expressway has been blocked near the Ghazipur protest site. At Delhi borders with Gurugram and Noida massive traffic jams were seen at Delhi’s borders as vehicles entering the national capital were checked by Delhi Police and paramilitary jawans.
Security had been tightened at the border areas of Delhi- Gurgaon ahead of the bandh and police officials have maintained extra vigil on highways and border areas.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said that Bharat Bandh has got support across the country. He futher said that they apologize to people facing problems, but farmers have been facing difficulties since past 10 months. He further added that proper arrangements to allow emergency vehicles to pass have been made.
The protest has been supported by the State governments of Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Punjab, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.
