Thousands of protesting farmers throng Parliament

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh, Jayant Chaudhary and several farmer leaders are scheduled to address the protesters.

Traffic in several areas in the capital is likely to be thrown out of gear as reports came in of thousands of more farmers crossing the Delhi borders from Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Loni.

According to a traffic police official, jams were expected at Rajghat, Barakhamba Road and Janpath as well as roads leading to the New Delhi railway station, Daryaganj, Nehru Marg, Tolstoy Marg.

“Tens of thousands of farmers are coming in from various directions. It will lead to a halt in traffic,” said the official.

The farmers' agitation in the Mathura and Aligarh districts has become an issue  of political one-upmanship  with the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) blaming the central government for what it calls archaic land acquisition laws. The Congress, the Bharatitya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party  and other parties  in turn blame the BSP for mishandling the farmers' agitation for higher compensation amounts.

Farmers intensified the stir after two protestors were killed  in police firing in Aligarh district Aug 14.

While supporting the demand, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said the farmers should have been marching to Lucknow against the Mayawati government and not against the central government.

The farmers demand that their lands should not be taken away from them and the government should stop intervening in their affairs.

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been agitating for higher compensation for their lands acquired for the Yamuna Expressway, which is expected to bring the driving time between New Delhi and Agra to about 90 minutes.

It will pass through Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), Aligarh, Mahamaya Nagar (Hathras) and Mathura districts, and involves acquisition of land in 115 villages.

A total of 2,500 hectares is to be acquired for the development of the expressway -- 500 hectares each in Noida, Aligarh and Agra and 1,000 hectares in Gautam Buddha Nagar.