Tikri border: Local shopkeepers fear losses due to farmers' protest

New Delhi: Looking anxiously as police set up a five-layer barricade near the Tikri Border metro station, Krushna Kumar wondered if he would have to shut shop again like three years ago when the agitation against the farm laws hit life in the area.

The fear of financial losses and other hardships has returned to haunt locals and shopkeepers like Kumar ahead of the farmers' protest march to the national capital on Tuesday.

"During any protest, we face a huge loss," the 35-year-old who runs a grocery shop said.

Kumar said that his regular customers are the labourers working nearby, but due to security measures and other restrictions during any protest, the main road becomes inaccessible to them.

"Most of the labourers working in the nearby area are our daily customers and the only source of income. During any protest, the police stop the workers from using the main road and we lose our customers," Kumar told PTI.

Another shopkeeper Sayyam said that during the last farmers' protest, he faced a lot of difficulty while going to his shop.

"My grocery shop is located just 100 metres away from Tikri Border Metro Station, but due to heavy security force deployment, I had to take another way to reach my shop for which I had to walk almost two kilometres," he said Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC have been imposed for 30 days till March 12 in the national capital in view of the 'Delhi Chalo March' called by farmer outfits. More than 5,000 security personnel have been deployed along the border with other states.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made at the Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders, the sites of the 2020-21 sit-in by farmer outfits against the three now-repealed central agri laws.

Multiple-layer security barricading with concrete blocks, spike barriers, barbed wires and containers has been put on roads to stop the protesting farmers from entering the national capital.

The Delhi Chalo March has been called by around 200 farmers' unions, and a large number of protesters are expected to move towards the national capital on February 13 from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and others have called the protest to press the Centre to accept their demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.