Farmer protest continues despite arrests by police

Farmers demanding a hiked land compensation, residential plots and other benefits continued their protest against the Noida authority outside the Sector 6 office

Farmers demanding a hiked land compensation, residential plots and other benefits continued their protest against the Noida authority outside the Sector 6 office despite the police sending 11 to Luksar jail and detaining over 50 on Wednesday.

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Farmers started their protest on Monday and had blocked a road that connects Sector 6 with Udyog Marg, thereby throwing traffic out of gear from 11am to 4pm. On Tuesday, when they started their protest at 11am again, police tried to stop them. After an argument with protesters, police filed cases under Section 151 against 11 farmers, including Sukhbeer Yadav, who is leading the agitation. The 11 were sent to Greater Noida’s Luksar prison and denied bail.

Angered by this, farmers intensified the agitation outside the authority office in Sector 6 on Wednesday.

“How can the police stop us from protesting for our justified demands? We were protesting peacefully, demanding residential plots, settlement of our abadi issues and hiked land compensation when police tried to crush our campaign against the authority. Our fight will continue and police atrocities cannot discourage us,” Vir Singh, a farmer, said.

The police also detained over 50 farmers in Garhi village while they were on their way to the Sector 6 protest site. They were let off later in the evening.

“The police came to Garhi and forcefully took away farmers in a bus to Greater Noida’s police lines. Instead of discussing our demands, the police are using force to remove us,” Kishan Singh, a farmer from Basi village, said.

The farmers are demanding a hiked land compensation of 64%, residential plots (10% of total land acquired), abadi settlement and other amenities.

Ranvijay Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, said, “We are taking action against farmers because they are disturbing public peace and also blocking the smooth flow of traffic.”

The Noida authority said they are open to discussions on farmers’ demands.

“We are trying to establish communication with farmers to end the agitation. We will talk to farmers on Thursday,” Santosh Upadhyay, officer on special duty of the Noida authority, said.