Muzaffarnagar: Hundreds of farmers in agriculturally rich western Uttar Pradesh came under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and blocked the Delhi-Dehradun National highway 58 for hours on Thursday seeking ban on more than 10-year-old diesel vehicles. Their other demand included quick payment of sugarcane dues.Scores of farmers parked their tractors in the middle the road and stage a dharna near Bhangela More in Khatauli area of Muzaffarnagar.Rakesh Tikait, BKU’s national spokesperson who joined the farmers at the dharna site, said, “We handed over our 12 demands, including taking tractors out of the NGT’s ban on more than 10 years old diesel vehicles as well as the pending sugarcane dues. The administration has assured us that our issues will be resolved in 15 days.”Attacking the BJP governments in the state and Centre, Tikait said, “Issues of farmers are far more important than temple or quota politics pursued by the saffron party.”Over 70,000 farmers took part in the last 'Kisan Yatra', which was started from Haridwar on September 23, 2018. The yatra was stopped at Delhi-UP Border on October 2, and police resorted to firing teargas shells, used water cannons and also lathicharged the farmers to disperse them, but some farmers somehow made it to the Kisan Ghat. Later, BKU called off the protest after government assured that their demands would looked into.BKU had earlier called several protests against the banning 10-year-old vehicles, saying that the ban order should apply to all old vehicles, including roadways buses, rail engines and government vehicles.

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