GHAZIABAD: The Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur turned into a fortress Monday with multi-layer barricades and a heavy security deployment at the site where farmers are protesting against the new central laws.
Protesters are pouring in as Bharatiya Kisan Union members and its leader Rakesh Tikait stay pitched at UP Gate, occupying a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway since November. Hundreds of security personnel, including the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and Rapid Action Force (RAF), kept vigil.
Drones were being used to monitor the situation and vehicles checked as more support continued to flow in for the BKU from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Apart from the barricades, barbed wire has been installed to stop people moving on foot.
"Ghaziabad District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey and Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani reviewed the situation on the ground as they visited Ghazipur, Seemapuri and Dilshad Garden areas amid the ongoing farmers' stir at Delhi-UP borders" an official statement said.
Pandey and Naithani also held meetings with senior officers of the Delhi Police and the administration to discuss the situation and review preparedness, it added.
Officials said that IG (Meerut Range) Praveen Kumar toured Ghaziabad, where he visited the UP Gate protest site and the Kaushambi police station. "The IG has issued necessary instructions to the local police and the police officials deployed at the protest site," an official said.
Multiple layers of barricades have been put up and nails cemented on the road on routes adjoining the flyover in a bid to prevent movement of vehicles. Barbed wire has also been installed. Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been camping at Delhi's borders for two months, seeking a repeal of the three central laws.
They claim that the new laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system. But the Centre says the laws will only give farmers more options to sell their produce.