No chakka jam in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, says farmers' body

New Delhi: The umbrella body of farmers on Friday announced that there will be no "chakka jam" or roadblock in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand today, though farmers across the country are likely to protest "peacefully" on national highways. The statement comes days after unprecedented chaos erupted on Republic Day during the farmers' tractor rally.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha in its statement said that essential services such as ambulances and school buses will not be stopped during the "chakka jam" scheduled to be organised between 12 pm and 3 pm today.

"There will be no road blockade in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand tomorrow (Saturday); roads will be blocked in rest of the country excluding Delhi. The reason is that they can be called to Delhi any time, so they are kept on standby," Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said.

Tikat also revealed they had evidence that a few people would attempt to spread violence at these places and therefore they have decided to not block roads in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

"There will be no chakka jam programme inside Delhi since all the protest sites are already in a chakka jam mode. All roads for entering Delhi will remain open except where farmers' protest sites are already located," the farmers' group said in the statement.

The farmer leader Darshan Pal also assured that "Chakka jam" will remain "completely peaceful", adding that protesters have been asked not to get into any kind of conflict with government officials and others.

"The government's move to snap internet around protest sites and install concrete barricades, including inserting nails on the roads to prevent crowd movement, was an act to silence us," the farmers' group said.

Security at the three protest sites at the Delhi-Haryana border has been tightened and more policemen have been deployed. Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava has also met with senior officers to review the arrangements.

The police added that they will be monitoring social media to catch anyone spreading rumours that could lead to trouble.

"We are monitoring content on social media to make sure rumours are not spread against the police. The protestors are camping at the borders of Delhi. We are in touch with the police force of other states also," Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal told NDTV.