Farmers across North India have started marching towards Delhi to participate in the tractor parade scheduled for Republic Day 2021.

Thousands of vehicles from different parts of the region like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are travelling towards the capital, leading to heavy traffic on Highways and connecting roads between Delhi and cities like Amritsar, Jaipur and Meerut.

Around 1500 tractors have already reached to the borders of the National Capital Region, leading to traffic congestions at different places. The police officials also mentioned that there are no such orders to regulate their movements. The president of  Bhartiya Kisan Union Gurnam Singh Charuni has urged farmers not to bring trailers along with them, but the participating farmers have apparently denied listening to him, because, as per the approaching protestors, they plan to stay in Delhi until the farm laws are withdrawn.

Kisan Union is expecting the participation of 5,00,000 tractors in the parade against the farm laws. They have requested participating farmers to prepare tableaux for the rally showcasing farmers’ life. He said “It is expected that around 30% of the participating tractors will showcase tableaux on themes like ‘History of Farmers Movement in India’, ‘The Role of Women Farmers’, ‘Farmers Suicides’, etc.  

Each tractor will carry a tricolor and will start marching from five border points of Delhi- Tikri, Singhu, Ghazipur, Shahjahanpur and Palwal towards the centre of Delhi. The farmers have been sitting at these five border points since November 28, 2020, against the three farm laws. The tractor parade will start post the Republic Day parade to be concluded at the Rajpath on January 26, 2021. They will cover a distance of about 100 kilometers and will rest the rally around 6.00pm at the Delhi borders only.

War Room setups at the borders and sufficient ambulance facilities have been installed for the smooth running of the parade. Farmer leaders have assured that the protest will remain peaceful and will not affect the official Republic Day Ceremony in any way.

The police forces in the capital have agreed to remove the barricades at Singhu and Tikri to let farmers enter the national capital. Neither the center nor the security forces have released any statement to stop the parade. 

With this new move, farmers hope that the central government will withdraw the farm bills against which they have been protesting for almost two months now. Earlier, the farmers had called for ‘Bharat Bandh’ which had paved a way for discussion with the center.

The authorities have, however, asked the general public to check on traffic updates before moving out of homes on the Republic Day, in order to avoid any inconvenience.

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