The Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma on Friday said that the agitating farmers will be allowed to enter the national Capital and appealed to them to maintain order and demonstrate peacefully.
“Protesting farmers will be allowed to enter the national capital. They will have the permission to protest at the Nirankari Samagam Ground in the Burari area,” he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab farmers’ bodies claimed that the Union government has allowed them entry into Delhi with permission to hold their agitation at the Burari ground, according to PTI. “We have been allowed safe passage to Delhi,” claimed Krantikari Kisan Union president Darshan Pal.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said that farmers were headed to the Burari ground after the farmers’ demand that they be allowed to hold their protest at the Ramlila ground was rejected by the Delhi Police.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh welcomed the decision and said that the government should immediately initiate talks to address farmers’ issues.
“I welcome Centre’s decision to allow farmers to enter Delhi to exercise their democratic right to protest. They should also now initiate immediate talks to address farmers’ concerns on the #FarmLaws and resolve the simmering issue,” he said.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are on their way to Delhi as part of their ‘Chalo Dilli’ agitation against the three contentious agricultural laws passed by the Centre in September. The three laws, that according to the farmers would make them vulnerable to exploitation by big corporations, are — The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.
