Taking no chances in the wake of violence and clashes during tractor parade of farmers, Centre on Tuesday decided to deploy additional paramilitary troops in Delhi to restore peace and maintain law and order; a decision arrived after a marathon meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shah was briefed on the situation in the national capital by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava among others. While around 4,500 paramilitary personnel were already deployed for law and order duties before the Republic Day, around 2000 additional paramilitary troops will be brought in for deployment in sensitive places in Delhi even as protesting farmers have been asked to leave Delhi.
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The Samyukt Kisan Morcha has already called off the tractor parade by farmers and appealed to participants to immediately return to their respective protest sites.
During the day, the Home Ministry decided to temporarily suspend the internet in parts of Delhi like Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri, Mukarba Chowk and Nangloi and their adjoining areas for 12 hours, till the midnight. After clashes were reported between farmers and cops at many locations, Rapid Action Force personnel were repositioned in the national capital.
In the meeting, the Home Secretary and the Delhi top cop apprised Shah about the steps being taken by the police to maintain peace.
The police have maintained that protesting farmers violated the conditions pre-agreed for their tractor parade and resorted to violence and vandalism that left several cops injured.
Read | One farmer dies during tractor rally at Delhi's ITO; protestors drape body in tricolour
In a statement, the police rued that while they did everything with due diligence following the conditions for the rally, the protesters began their march much ahead of the scheduled time. "The protesters violated conditions fixed for the rally. The farmers began the tractor rally before scheduled time, they also resorted to violence and vandalism," Delhi Police PRO Eish Singhal said.
Meanwhile, high alert has been sounded in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab, ruled by the BJP and Congress respectively, after the clashes in Delhi. Authorities in Haryana said that anyone taking law into hands will be dealt with strictly.
"The Police are also keeping a close eye on social media. Strict action will be taken if any kind of misleading, provocative and anarchic post is shared or forwarded on social media. People should not pay attention to the rumours and follow the Haryana Police website and Twitter handle for the latest updates," Haryana DGP Manoj Yadava said.