The thrill of a long weekend turned sour on the last day for residents of East Delhi as they were forced to remain indoors with thousands of farmers virtually locking down Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
A lot of residents said that repeated information on main roads being out of bounds and police diverting traffic diffused their enthusiasm of stepping out on a national holiday. The Delhi traffic police had also issued a travel advisory on Monday, warning motorists heading towards Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar to avoid Ghazipur Border (Meerut Expressway), and take alternative routes mentioned by them. "We cancelled all our plans and stayed home after we saw updates about the protest in news. Most of the roads were closed and the ones that were open, were choking with diverted traffic," said Himanshu Gupta, a resident of Preet Vihar. Angry that her family lunch plan being shelved, Shefali Kohli of Mayur Vihar, Phase-I said, "I was looking forward to meeting my cousins in Ghaziabad. I heard that all traffic movement has been stopped because of thousands of protesters who are camping at the Ghazipur border."
According to people, their woes started early in the morning, hours before the Kisan Kranti March reached the border as the police cordoned off roads on Monday night. "It took me two hours to reach Sahibabad from Noida because there were so many diversions in anticipation of today's protest," Sumit Mishra, a resident of the area.
Fear psychosis coerced people of east-Delhi and Ghazipur area indoors. A lot of them feared a redux of what happened in Panchkula when Ram Rahim was sentenced in two rape cases. "The visuals shown on television were so scary. We were scared that the farmers will go on a rampage if the mob succeeded in entering Delhi and resort to violence," Krishan Lal Gupta, residing at IP Extension said. Some were even reminded of the mayhem Jats caused in Rohtak during Jat agitation in 2016. "No one can contain a mob once they get angry. Even though we did not step out, we felt unsafe even inside. I could see horrific images of loot and violence in Rohtak flashing in front of me," Yukti Ghosh from Yamuna Vihar said.
from Daily News & Analysis https://ift.tt/2O4l4Yg
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