anger-outrage-overflowing-over-shambhu-blockade

There is widespread anger and resentment over the continued blockade at the Shambu border by some farm activists as it has not only caused losses to businesses and industries worth thousands of crores, it has also been causing daily hardships to lakhs of people living in the adjoining areas.

 

On Sunday, a group of people from the adjoining villages and also some traders from Ambala city reached the protest site urging the protestors to remove the road blockade as It has badly hit their day-to-day lives.

 

The “farm activists” have blocked the National Highway since February 12 this year. It is four and a half months and the protestors are staying put there.

 

While they are camping at the site, it is the people of Punjab, parts of Haryana the northern state of Himachal Pradesh and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir who are suffering.

 

The vehicles have to take a long detour to bypass the blockade through small and narrow lanes in villages. Some of these roads get washed away while others get submerged during the monsoon rains as the river Gaggar swells up.

 

While the residents of the surrounding villages have suffered in business and trade directly, the hotel and tourism business has taken the worst hit across the state. Taxi operators have lost work as most people avoid travelling by road due to the blockade. 

 

The farm activists alleged that it was some BJP “goons” who tried to disrupt their programme at the protest site on Sunday. But the fact is that it is not just the adjoining villages near the protest site but everyone across Punjab, Himachal, Haryana Jammu and Kashmir who is angry and annoyed with the continuous blockade.

 

This is quite shocking that while lakhs of people have been held to ransom, none of the governments, neither in the state nor at the centre appears to be interested in initiating any move to make the farmers vacate the protest site. 

 

The farm activists who have blocked the highway have nothing to lose. Most of them do not do farming themselves. Either they do not own any land or have leased it out. Most of these activists are “lifetime protestors”, with protests and dharnas being their full-time job.

 

Also, with an abundant supply of food and ration at the dharna site, besides other necessary facilities available, the farm activists will be least interested in moving out.

 

Both the state and the central government will need to intervene as anger and resentment is brewing among the affected people. It has started to manifest as was evident during Sunday confrontation. The farm activists may try to dismiss it as the handiwork of the BJP, the fact is that everyone is angry over the blockade.

 

It is high time that the state and the central governments start negotiating with the farm activists to open the highway and if they are not ready to move out, the governments must use all available means, including judicial ones to open the highway.

 

This is unprecedented that the entire northern part of the country has been virtually disconnected just because some “aggrieved activists” have blocked the highway and nobody seems to be bothered. 

 

Reopening the highway must be the top priority of the government. Just because some people feel aggrieved, they must not be allowed to hold the common man to ransom.