Barricades rolled with barbed wires, cement boulders, nails on roads, and trenches dug alongside the road await the protesting farmers as they march towards Delhi on Wednesday.
The Delhi police has resorted to stringent security measures to prevent the farmers from entering Delhi thereby foiling their proposed 'Delhi Chalo' march against the Centre.
Fearing that this protest could turn into an untoward incident, the police are on high alert and have activated all their sources.
The northern borders -- Tikri and Singhu -- are the ones which have been completely fortified with a massive presence of police and para-military personnel.
A multi-layer security arrangements have been put in place at the Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders, the sites of the 2020-21 sit-in by farmer outfits against the three now-repealed central agri laws.
The security barricading includes laying of concrete blocks, spike barriers, barbed wires and containers that have been put on roads to stop the protesting farmers from entering the national capital.
Not just the borders, rather even within the city, the police have intensified its security arrangements at several sensitive areas. The Delhi Traffic Police issued an advisory for commuters, asking them to avoid certain busy stretches in central Delhi and take alternate routes owing to restrictions given the farmers' protest.
"On February 21, due to special traffic arrangements, kindly avoid IP Marg in both the carriageways from IP Flyover towards A-point and vice-versa, ITO Chowk, DDU Marg, BSZ Marg, JLN Marg, Shanti Van crossing and Rajghat crossing from 9:30 am to 11:30 am," the police said.
Due to restrictions, traffic snarls were also reported from various parts of the city, especially the roads close to borders.
On Tuesday, BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait announced that farmers will stage protests outside collectorate offices in every district of Uttar Pradesh.
“After February 21’s march, we have programmes on February 26 and 27 in support of the issues raised by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political). Our tractors would move towards Delhi from all directions till the Ghazipur border,” Tikait said while addressing a farmers’ congregation at Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar.
Tikait had further said that the farmers won't enter Delhi but park their tractors on the highway near the border.
Owing to his speech, the Noida Traffic Police issued an advisory for the commuters as farmers have planned to converge at the Knowledge Park metro station on tractors and private vehicles.
"Thereafter, they will take out a march that will pass the India Expo Mart, Sharda University, LG roundabout and Moser Bear roundabout to culminate at the Collectorate in Surajpur," the advisory read.
Notably, the farmers, besides a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price, are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.