SC to Hear Petition on Removal of Protesting Farmers from NCR Borders to Clear 'Roadblocks'

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a petition on the removal of protesting farmers from the borders of the National Capital Region to clear away “blockade of roads”. The state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have filed a response against the public interest litigation, informing the court that they have done “their best” and partially opened the highways.

However, they have told the apex court that despite “multiple rounds of negotiation” with them, farmers have continued their agitation against the Centre’s farm reform laws.

The PIL has been filed in court by a resident of Noida who has sought the removal of roadblocks created by the farmers’ protest.

The NH-24 was repeatedly blocked by farmers, who have been protesting against the new farm laws since it was passed in the Parliament last year, in January, March and April. It remains blocked.

The farmers’ protest will enter nine months on August 26.

The UP government, in its affidavit, said that it is making efforts to “restore law and order without resorting to the use of force on the agitating farmers” and explain it to them the “grossly illegal act of blocking roads”.

Further, it informed the court that diversions have been created for the traffic to move between Ghaziabad and Delhi via Maharajpur and Hindon roads.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government has opened one lane of the highway at the Singhu-Kundli border, it said in the affidavit submitted to the court.

Thousands of farmers from across the country, particularly Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at Delhi borders, including Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, since November last year. The three laws that the farmers are demanding to be repealed, they claim, will do away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

Over 10 rounds of talks with the government that has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties.

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