Farmers’ protest: AAP govt refuses to let Delhi Police use stadiums as temporary jails

New Delhi: The AAP government on Friday denied permission to the Delhi Police to convert the city’s stadiums into temporary jails as farmers continued to push towards the national capital on their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march against the Centre’s farm laws.

The Delhi Police used tear gas at the Singhu and Tikri borders to disperse protesting farmers as they tried to enter the national capital on Friday morning.

While rejecting the Delhi Police’s request, Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain said that every Indian citizen has the constitutional right to protest peacefully for which they cannot be put in jails.

In a letter to the principal home secretary, Jain said that the central government should accept the demands of the protesters, adding that putting farmers in jails is not the solution.

Earlier, the Delhi Police had sought permission from the AAP government to use the city’s nine stadiums as temporary jails for the agitating farmers.

“In view of the farmers’ march, the Delhi Police have asked the Delhi government for permission to use nine stadiums as temporary jails to keep the detained or arrested farmers,” a source said earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has enhanced deployment of security personnel, stationed sand-laden trucks and water cannons and used barbed wire for fencing at the Singhu and Tikri border points (Delhi-Haryana border) to prevent the protesters from entering the city.

Police said they will not allow the agitating farmers to enter Delhi.