Police open Jharoda border

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, March 9

The Delhi Police have opened the Jharoda border leading to Najafgarh (Delhi) from Bahadurgarh town here on the insistence of the residents and farmer leaders of nearby areas.

The police had placed a multi-layer barricading at the Jharoda border on January 26 to keep farmers away from the national capital following violence during the Republic Day tractor parade. A large number of commuters were using the Jharoda border at that time to enter Delhi following the closure of the nearby Tikri border due to the farmers’ agitation since November 26.

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For the past around one-and-half month, commuters were forced to use alternative routes through fields and villages to travel to Delhi in connection with their jobs and businesses. The heavy load of vehicles on these routes led to traffic congestion and disturbed the peaceful atmosphere of villages.

Dust and air pollution caused by vehicles was also adversely affecting vegetable crops. The people of nearby areas organised demonstrations twice in the past fortnight to get the barricades at the Jharoda border removed. They had also threatened that if the police did not remove the barricades, they would do it on their own.

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Farmer leaders, too, criticised the Delhi Police for placing barricades at the border and accused them of deliberately harassing commuters with an intention to defame the farmers’ agitation and make them go against the protesting farmers camping at the Tikri-Bahadurgarh border for the past over 100 days against the three farm laws.