COURTESY HT NOV 26

Checks over farm bill stir trigger jam on Ggm e-way

Traffic on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. Rahul grover/ht
Leena Dhankhar

leena.dhankhar@htlive.com

Gurugram : Traffic movement into the city slowed down on the Delhi to Gurugram carriageway of the expressway on Wednesday evening, as the police intensified checking of commuters ahead of the ‘Dilli Chalo’ protest march call given by farmers for Thursday and Friday.

The traffic jam started around 3.30pm and was resolved only around 6.30pm, said Gurugram police officers. Movement of vehicles at other borders points with Delhi was smooth.

Ashtha Modi, the deputy commissioner of police (headquarters), said, “There was a jam at the border on the Delhi to Gurugram side of the expressway and we coordinated with the Delhi Police to streamline vehicular movement.”

Commuters travelling from Delhi to Gurugram on Wednesday evening also said that they faced a long wait to enter the city.

Amitabh Singh, an executive working with a multinational electrical company, said it took him half an hour to travel from Mahipalpur in Delhi to Cyber City as he was stopped twice by the Delhi Police. “I had no idea that entering Gurugram is a problem. No advisory was issued on any social media platform. It was said that going to Delhi will be an issue,” he said.

However, officials of the Delhi Police denied that there was a jam on the expressway.

Ingit Pratap Singh, the deputy commissioner of police (south-west), Delhi Police, said that pickets have been set up on both carriageways at the Rajokri border, near the defunct Sirhaul toll plaza. “The checks were mainly of vehicles entering Delhi, to ensure that protesting farmers do not enter the capital. The picket on the carriageway leading to Gurugram was just set up to check criminal elements, but the checking was not as intense as on the other carriageway, where vehicles were entering Delhi.”

Another deputy commissioner of Delhi Police, of a district that has a border in its jurisdiction, said that they are keeping a watch on large vehicles entering the city. “If people are coming in mass in a vehicle, they are being stopped and their identities ascertained. If they are not travelling with families, they are being stopped and checked,” said the DCP, who didn’t want to be identified.

The Gurugram Police has deployed 900 personnel at the 13 borders connecting the city with Delhi, Rajasthan, Nuh, Rewari, Sohna and Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway. The police said they have set up 123 barricades in these locations and strict instructions have been given to check all the vehicles.

The police said they would check all vehicles and commuters’ identity cards to ensure farmers don’t cross