A day after the farmers were removed from Shambhu border of Punjab-Haryana the police and administration began removing permanent structures from Singhu border to restore normal traffic flow.
The police are facing difficulties in removing cemented barricades and to break the concrete iron mixed boulders and walls which have been there for the last 13 months.
The police had sealed the Singhu border with multiple layers of barricades with concrete blocks, cemented walls and barbed wires last year on February 13 due to farmers’ call to protest in the national capital.
Earlier, nearly 10 JCBs were pressed into the service at the Ghaggar bridge at the Shambhu border to dismantle the concrete barricading to start the traffic.
This came after the surprise police action at the protest sites. Both Punjab and Haryana used heavy machinery throughout the day to remove the cemented barricades put up to stall the farmers on the two different national highways leading to New Delhi from different places in Punjab.
Patiala and Sangrur police detained over 500 farmers and lodged them at different police stations and other places on Thursday. A committee of SKM in a meeting in Patiala condemned the repression against the farmers. The police also handed over tractor-trailers and their belongings to farmers after verifying their identities, including Aadhaar cards.
Singhu border witnessed severe traffic disruptions since the farmers’ protests of 2020-2021. Despite the protest ending two years ago, concrete barriers remained in place, reducing the previously free-flowing three-lane stretch to a single-lane bottleneck.
The area, home to several factories and surrounded by villages such as Singhu and Kundli, serves as a vital trade route with heavy traffic flow throughout the day. The blockade at the border, which was a key site of the farmers’ protest, had a debilitating impact on the daily lives of locals.
