Lucknow: Farmers may have pressed a pause on their march to the capital as talks with the Centre continue but for residents of Delhi-NCR, choked borders remain a reality for the second week as heavy police deployment and fortification of the entry points to Delhi continue.
The UP Gate border, one of the busiest because of the 14-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway and NH-9, witnessed a jam in peak rush hour on Monday morning as thousands of cars negotiated its partially blocked lanes and flyovers, where police have parked cranes, cars, buses, trucks and a contingent of personnel.
Commuters expressed frustration at the gridlock, which has increased their travel time between Ghaziabad and Delhi, and the unpredictability that has led to reaching office late on multiple occasions since the border cordons began being drawn last Monday.
Raghunath Singh, director of a startup based in Delhi, said while there were no farmers or any protests at the border, barricades put up by Delhi Police left office goers and other commuters stranded in almost a kilometre-long queue of vehicles on the DME on Monday morning. Last week, the snarls stretched back to Sector 62 in Noida on a couple of days.
“Checking a vehicle took the cops hardly a minute but with vehicles being funneled into a line at the point where barricades are put up, it slows down traffic through the morning. I was stuck there for nearly 15-20 minutes,” he said.
A govt schoolteacher, Sunidhi Chaturvedi, said she reached work late because she was caught in the snarl at the border. “Last week, I took the metro to school but today I assumed there would be no traffic congestion as the farmer leaders decided to halt the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march after talks with the Centre. But the checks continued and I was stuck on the flyover,” she said.
Traffic inspector (UP Gate) Santosh Singh said UP Police deployed more than 50 cops at the border and some diversions were in place to ease traffic movement. “We are doing our best so that commuters don’t have to suffer,” he said.
Traffic movement remained smooth at three main Noida-Delhi borders —DND Flyway, Chilla and Kalindi Kunj. However, the farmers’ group protesting in Noida and Greater Noida demanding increased compensation and developed land said it had not received a positive response from the police commissioner so far and was considering a protest march on Feb 23.
Rupesh Verma, district president of All India Kisan Sabha, said the police commissioner had assured the farmers that a high-level committee will be formed by Feb 18 to look into their demands. “Now they have sought some more time to decide on the formation of the committee. If the committee is not formed, we will march to Delhi on Feb 23,” he said.
