Farmers’ protest holds up traffic from Gurugram to interstate border on Delhi-Jaipur highway

Over 500 farmers from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana and members of trade unions on Sunday morning blocked the Delhi-Jaipur highway at the Shahjahanpur interstate border in Rajasthan as the police did not let them enter Haryana. Hundreds of commuters were stuck on both carriageways of the highway for around five hours, before the police removed the barricades and let commuters move towards Delhi, and then towards Jaipur.

The border remained heavily congested between 1pm and 6pm, while the movement of vehicles remained slow on the entire 86-kilometre stretch, from the Sirhaul border in Gurugram till Shahjahanpur, due to a five-layer police deployment at each traffic junction. Heavy police deployment was seen at Sirhaul, Bilaspur, Panchgaon, Manesar, Sidhrawali, Bawal, Rewari and Bhiwadi.

Various farmers’ organisations in Rajasthan and Haryana had joined the agitation on the call of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee and had started gathering at the Shahjahanpur border, in Alwar district, on Sunday morning.