Farmers’ Leaders Give A Different Spin To Chakka Jam Protest In Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand

New Delhi: Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will not witness the “chakka jam” or road blockade on Saturday despite the farmers across the country are set to protest “peacefully” on national highways, an umbrella body of farmers announced on Friday.

The farmers’ statement comes days after a tractor rally turned violent in the national capital on the Republic Day.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha that is participating in the protest to demand repeal of the three new farm laws said essential services such as ambulances and school buses will not be stopped during the “chakka jam” scheduled to be organised between 12 pm and 3 pm on Saturday, farmers said via a statement.

“There will be no road blockade in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand tomorrow (Saturday); roads will be blocked in rest of the country excluding Delhi. The reason is that they can be called to Delhi any time, so they are kept on standby,” Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait was quoted as saying by NDTV.

“We have evidence that a few people would attempt to spread violence at these places. So we have decided to not block roads in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” Tikait said.

Thousands of farmers, most of them from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at three border points in the national capital — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for more than 70 days.

“There will be no chakka jam programme inside Delhi since all the protest sites are already in a chakka jam mode. All roads for entering Delhi will remain open except where farmers’ protest sites are already located,” the farmers’ group said via the statement.

“Chakka jam” will remain “completely peaceful”, farmer leader Darshan Pal said. He also said that the protesters have been asked not to get into any kind of conflict with government officials and others, reported NDTV.

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