Akhilesh Yadav slams govt over barricades at farmers' protest sites

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday attacked the BJP government at the Centre over the police setting up barricades and roadblocks at farmer agitation sites on Delhi's borders.

Farmers' protest sites at Delhi's borders have turned into fortresses with police beefing up security and strengthening barricades. Iron rods have been hooked between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters, agitating against the new farm laws. Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked as a makeshift cement wall has come up there. At Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, there are multi-layer barricades to stop the movement of vehicles. Barbed wire has also been put up to keep off people on foot. "Politics you are awesome, with wall raised on the way and spiked wire, you say lets talk)," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi with hashtag #farmer #nahi-chahiye-BJP (no more BJP). Farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws on Monday announced a countrywide 'chakka jam' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours in protest against the Internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment allegedly meted out to them by authorities, and other issues.