Shaheen Bagh Protest: Delhi-NCR Was Stricken By Dharna

Shaheen Bagh protest: Delhi-NCR was stricken by dharna that lasted more than 100 days. In protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC).

The Supreme Court has said that the occupation of a public place is not acceptable for protesting in Shaheen Bagh for nearly four months.  Due to this strike, the daily routine of millions of people of Delhi-NCR on Delhi-Noida road was badly affected.

Due to the complete closure of the Delhi-Noida route, the entire traffic going through Kalindi Kunj to Noida, Greater Noida and Faridabad was diverted towards DND.

Due to this, the pressure of traffic on DND and Ring Road was increased considerably. As a result, people commuting from Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and East Delhi to South Delhi suffered heavy jams.

At the same time, people coming to Noida from Badarpur also had to go to DND first via Mathura Road. Due to this, Mathura Road was also jammed from Sarita Vihar to Ashram.

People coming to South Delhi from Noida, Akshardham and Sarai Kale Khan had to face terrible jam from DND. In protest against CAA and NRC, dharna also started in Haurani and Nizamuddin Basti.

Here too, the protesters wanted to sit on the road, but in time the police removed them from the road.

Children were unable to go to school

Due to the strike, people coming to Delhi from Noida, Greater Noida, used to go through Agra Canal via Madanpur Khadar village in front of Sarita Vihar’s Living Style Mall.

But, due to the increase in traffic pressure manifold in the narrow roads of the village, the village was completely choked. Due to this, the corporation’s car could not come to the village to collect garbage for months, the staff could not come to repair the sewer.

This led to the problem of sewer overflow. Due to the dharna, the children of New Friends Colony, Sarita Vihar, Madanpur Khadar, Ali Village, Jasola, Sukhdev Vihar, Kalindi Colony were unable to attend school for months.

Business in Shaheen Bagh market collapsed

Shops in Shaheen Bagh market remained closed for about four months due to the strike. There were many showrooms of big companies ranging from shoes, clothes, sports accessories to everything.

All these remained closed due to the demonstrations, which caused a loss of lakhs to the shopkeepers. The police removed the picket on March 24 due to the lockdown caused by Covid-19, but some shops were closed forever.

Along with Shaheen Bagh, there were months of dharna in front of Jamia Millia Islamia, due to which people of Sukhdev Vihar, New Friends Colony, etc. were upset.

There were protests against the protest

People of the Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Milia Islamia dharna were so upset that they started sitting on the dharna in protest against it. However, they were removed from the dharna on request.

A youth was also shot dead in Shaheen Bagh to protest against the dharna, although no one was injured. At the same time, a youth was also shot in Jamia Millia Islamia, injuring a demonstrator. Due to these protests, there was a lot of tension in the area.

All talks were inconclusive

On 17 February, the Supreme Court-appointed senior advocate Sanjay Hegde and advocate Sadhana Ramachandran as negotiators and asked them to open the road after talking to the protesters.

Former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah was appointed to create an atmosphere of dialogue on both sides. Five times the negotiators reached Shaheen Bagh for talks, but it did not yield any positive results.

The negotiators submitted their reports in a closed envelope to the Supreme Court. This decision of the Supreme Court is correct. No one should be allowed to sit on the road like this.

Millions of people were in trouble due to Shaheen Bagh. Due to this hundreds of children in our village could not go to school. Police should ensure that such a situation does not recur.