More Than 160 Protesting Farmers Arrested In Noida; Unions Urge Judiciary To Intervene, Threaten To Widen Stir

Over 160 protesting farmers who were holding a sit-in at the 'Dalit Prerna Sthal' in Noida were arrested by the police on Tuesday.

Noida:Police on Tuesday arrested more than 160 protesting farmers, including the president of Bharatiya Kisan Parishad Sukhbir Yadav 'Khalifa', who were holding a sit-in at the 'Dalit Prerna Sthal' in Noida after their march to Delhi on land compensation and other demands was stopped a day earlier.

The protesters, who had gathered in Gautam Buddh Nagar from different parts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday on the call of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), had threatened to resume their march to the national capital if their demands were not met within a week. Condemning the police action, the SKM said it was a violation of the constitutional rights for peaceful protest and urged the judiciary to intervene.

In a statement, the farmers' collective claimed the police had arrested "hundreds of farmers including more than one hundred women" and forcibly evicted them from the protest site. The SKM alleged that the police "had violated the consensus reached with the farmers' leadership on December 2, asking for seven days to allow the "Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh to discuss and resolve the demands".

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shiv Hari Meena said that they arrested more than 160 protesters at around 1.30 pm under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The provision allows the police to carry out arrests to prevent the commission of a cognisable offence.

Among the arrested were women and several farmer leaders like Khalifa and Pawan Khatana the state president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Western Uttar Pradesh), according to the police. The protesters were taken to the Luksar jail in Noida, officials said. Khalifa told PTI on phone that they will continue to fight for their "just demands".

Slamming the arrests, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) convened an "emergency" panchayat over the matter at the Kisan Bhavan in Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar where it decided to amplify the protest on Wednesday. "It was decided in the Panchayat that BKU workers from the five divisions of Uttar Pradesh, which include Meerut, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Moradabad -- will reach the 'Zero Point' in Gautam Buddha Nagar while peaceful dharna would be observed across all other districts in their respective police stations," BKU's youth wing president of Uttar Pradesh Anuj Singh told PTI.

Zero Point refers to a location at the convergence point of the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and the Yamuna Expressway in Gautam Buddh Nagar district's Greater Noida city. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait warned that the ongoing protest led by the SKM "would turn into a nationwide agitation of farmers".

Tikait asserted that the moment the farm leaders of Gautam Buddh Nagar call for help, "we will immediately respond to their call". The BKU leader, who was in Iglas here on Tuesday in connection with a private function, was speaking to media persons during his visit. "This agitation would turn into a nationwide agitation of farmers who are protesting against the unjust manner in which farmlands are being acquired by the government without paying just and full payment to the farmers," he said.

He said that the Gautam Buddh Nagar protest has been put off till December 9 to give the government some time to resolve this long-standing dispute between farmers in that district and the authorities which had been continuously delaying the process of payment of full compensation as envisaged by the Land Acquisition Act 2013.

Tikait said that the farmers of Gautam Buddh Nagar are not alone in this protest and representatives of different farmers' organisations have been stationed there to assist them in their quest for justice. He said it has become a regular practice of the present government to acquire farmlands at low prices and to add to the farmers' woes, even the agreed amount of compensation is delayed inordinately.

"I will shortly be visiting Gautam Buddh Nagar to converse with the local leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha during their ongoing negotiations with officials of the state government," he said. The farmers had gathered near the Mahamaya flyover and left for Delhi on Monday demanding proper compensation for their land acquired by the government, but were stopped by the police near Dalit Prerna Sthal, after which they sat on dharna there.

Massive traffic snarls had caused inconvenience to commuters crossing the Delhi-Noida border as police had set up multiple layers of barricades and deployed heavy security to stop the march, which coincided with Parliament's Winter Session.