New Delhi: Songs of protest blared from the speakers with flags of farmers unions fluttering as all roads led to the national capital from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan for the Republic Day tractor rally on the January 26.
Unlike the previous protests where police were preventing farmers from proceeding towards Delhi, this time their role was restricted to regulating traffic at bottlenecks created by the tractor convoys, reported The Times of India.
“In a bid to ensure smooth passage, we had started from Jalandhar around midnight on Saturday. To our surprise, there were still a lot of vehicles,” Zorawar Singh, who was at the wheel of a tractor carrying 15 people from his Jalandhar village, was quoted as saying by the national daily.
“When we all have to reach the same destination, why not have one tractor pull the rest? We are doing this by turn. It’s quite cost effective,” said another young farmer from Punjab, Harbhajan Singh.
President of the Kandela khap, Tek Ram Kandela said, “Around 2,000 tractors left from our khap and thousands more from other khaps of the district.”
Over 1,500 tractors from Rajasthan will also join the fray in the national capital. Over 50,000 farmers from MP have already reached the national capital to take part in the January 26 rally, Bharatiya Kisan Union state chief Anil Yadav said.
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