Delhi Police permits farmers tractor march on R-Day, 300 Pak Twitter handles plan disruption

The Delhi Police has allowed agitating farmers to carry out a tractor parade on January 26 when India celebrates its Republic Day. The tractor parade will start after the official Republic Day parade concludes at Rajpath and cover a distance of more than 100 kilometers before culminating around 6 pm. The Delhi Police has agreed to remove the barricades at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur to let farmers enter the national capital. Farmer leaders said the tractor parade will remain peaceful and will not affect the official Republic Day parade in any way.

"We have finally decided, we have agreed that we will have tractor rally also on that day maintaining the sanctity and security arrangements of the Republic Day celebrations. For the security arrangements of the tractor rally, we will be providing required Police deployment realising that there are elements of threat to create disturbance in the rally," Dependra Pathak, Special CP, Intelligence (Delhi Police) told the media on Sunday.

He informed that more than 300 Twitter handles are being operated from Pakistan from January 13 to 18 to disturb farmers’ proposed tractor rally. "Through intelligence and various other agencies, we have continuously been getting inputs regarding the threat to create disturbance in the tractor



rally. 308 Twitter handles have been generated from Pakistan to create confusion," he said.

"The tractor rally will enter Delhi from Tikri, Singhu & Ghazipur borders and return to its originating points. From Singhu, it will pass through Kanjhawala, Bawana, Auchandi border, KMP Expressway and then return to Singhu," Pathak said.

"From Tikri border, it will go to Nagloi and pass through Najafgarh and Western Peripheral Expressway. From Ghazipur border, the rally will go to 56-foot road and return to its originating point passing through Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressway," he added.

The tractor parade by agitating farmers will feature a number of tableaux from across states depicting village life, the protest against the Centre's contentious farm laws, and hailing their courage.

Enacted in September last year, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of minimum support price and do away with the 'mandi' (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.