BJP calls shutdown in Greater Noida, other areas
Greater Noida, May 10 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday called for a shutdown in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Budh Nagar district to protest police action on farmers.
BJP's district unit has decided to take out a protest march during which party workers will ask businesses and other commercial establishments to shut their shops, said a party spokesperson.
"We have termed it the Gautam Budh Nagar Bandh," the spokesperson said.
Police and agitating farmers in Greater Noida, which falls in Gautam Budh Nagar, fought a pitched battle Saturday in which four people, including two policemen, were killed. The farmers are agitating for higher compensation for land taken for constructing the 156-km Yamuna Expressway that is to link New Delhi with Agra and reduce travel time by an hour.
On Friday, angry farmers in Bhatta Parsaul village had held captive employees of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation. When security personnel arrived to free the officials held hostage, the farmers clashed with them, resulting in the deaths Saturday. Fifteen people were also critically injured in the clashes.