For the residents of Kaushambi, a wooded small colony bang on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, the recent observations of the Supreme Court on the farmers' strike were nothing less than music. The Supreme Court last week expressed its angst at the highways being blocked as part of protests while hearing arguments against the farmers', now a year-long long, agitation along borders of the national capital with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
The farmers have been protesting on the borders agitating against three contentious farm laws. They are demanding the repeal of the farm laws and legal guarantee for the minimum support price for their crops. A stalemate on the matter has continued despite several rounds of talks between the Centre and
farmer leaders.
Last week, the call for ‘Bharat Bandh’ by the farmers once again led to traffic snarls on the Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Those living in a colony like Kaushambi, which is just across the border, on the day of a general strike, crossing of the border may take half-an-hour to 45 minutes.
Kaushambi has been affected as the Ghazipur border on the highway has been lying blocked for a year now. The highway traffic is diverted through the colony, putting a strain on colony roads and also adding to pollution level. In fact, recent surveys have shown that Kaushambi, which touches Anand Vihar border, falls under the most polluted zone.
Most of the people living in these border colonies work in the NCR have to cross the border to go for work. Similarly, there are several who have to come to Noida and Ghaziabad in UP, Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana for work.
It’s double whammy for those who live in Noida-Ghaziabad and work in Gurgaon-Faridabad. Like this young mother living in Kaushambi and working in an office in DLF, Gurgaon, she leaves home by seven in the morning and returns after eight in the evening beating the jam.
On an average, given the traffic jam and increased prices, fuel budgets have also gone up by half. The surge is sufficient to burn holes in the pockets of those who are still trying to overcome the steep odds caused by the pandemic and its fallout.
The SC pulled up the Centre and state governments of Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh for the ongoing jam. It said that the court's job was to lay down the law, but the government was responsible for implementation.
The bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, "Redressal can be through judicial forum agitation or Parliamentary debates, but how can highways be blocked? And this cannot be a perpetual problem."
The petitioner, Monica Agarwal has argued that despite various directions by the Supreme Court to keep public roads clear, nothing was being done to keep them clear for traffic. She said that as a single mother with medical issues, it was a nightmare for her to travel to Delhi from Noida, following the farmers strike as it now takes two hours instead of 20 minutes. There are several like her who have been suffering from the last year.
In the grim battle of wits between the government and the farmers, certainly nobody has cared for the wellbeing of the migrant population which crosses city borders every day for work. While they continue to pay the toll to cross border, there seems to be no one interested in ending their daily toil. So much for the respect of the tax-paying workforce of the NCR!
(The writer is an author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice)