GURGAON: The Gurugram-Delhi border at Sirhaul, so far untouched by the farmers’ protest that began last November, was taken over on Thursday night by farmers wanting to march to Parliament. The blockade threw traffic on the Gurugram-Delhi lanes of the expressway out of gear all night and into early morning on Friday when the protesters were eventually persuaded to vacate the border after hectic night-long negotiations.
Packed in buses, the farmers — owing allegiance to outfits backed by the Akali Dal in Punjab — started arriving at the Sirhaul border from 10pm on Thursday. Stopped by Delhi Police from going ahead, they occupied the expressway’s Gurugram-Delhi carriageway.
According to police, the outfits had given a call to farmers to march to Parliament on the Prime Minister’s birthday on Friday. Hundreds of farmers from Punjab — protesting against the three new central agriculture laws — were headed for Delhi via Haryana when they were first stopped at Bahadurgarh. They took the KMP expressway to reach Delhi via Gurugram.
Police teams led by DCP (traffic) Ravinder Singh Tomar, four ACPs and SHOs from various police stations were deployed at various points of the expressway to manage traffic when information about the farmers reaching Sirhaul reached the cops.
Diversions were effected, and the farmers who had parked themselves on one side of the expressway blocked traffic on the Delhi-Gurugram lanes as well.
The cops tried to keep traffic moving by clearing up a few middle lanes but with cars passing slowly and a huge tailback, traffic coming from the direction of Jaipur was diverted at Manesar to the KMP. Traffic from Gurugram headed towards Delhi was diverted through Kapashera, Aya Nagar and other routes.
“We kept negotiating with the farmers so they don’t block traffic altogether. The protest led to chaos, but we managed to handle the situation. Yes, vehicles slowed down for some time, but there was no major snarl.
By early morning, when the farmers had vacated the border, traffic movement had become normal,” said DCP (traffic) Tomar, adding traffic movement had also slowed down because Delhi Police were checking vehicles entering the capital.
The Gurugram-Delhi border at Sirhaul is one of the busiest crossings in NCR and even a small disruption there can immediately lead to a snarl. Not just traffic between the two cities, vehicles headed to South Haryana and Rajasthan also take this route.
Joginder Singh, a farmer from Punjab, said they wanted to hold a peaceful protest and did not mean to disrupt traffic. “We were not allowed to enter Delhi.
Protest is our democratic right, but this government is not allowing us to do that even in a peaceful way,” said Singh.
