The farmers were back on tracks in Punjab on Sunday. Up in arms against the powers-that-be — both at the Centre and in the State — for not fulfilling their pending demands, the farmers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), staged three-hour rail roko protest at 15 locations in Punjab’s 13 districts affecting the rail traffic resulting in cancellation and delay of several
trains.
Notwithstanding the light rain all through the day, the protesting farmers continued with their protest on the rail tracks from 1 pm till 4 pm, after which they vacated the tracks and the train movement resumed. However, the protestors continued their “indefinite” blockade at Gurdaspur, and was not yet lifted.
The protests were held at Jandiala Guru in Amritsar, Batala Railway Station in Gurdaspur, Khadoor Sahib, Patti and Tarn Taran Railway Stations in Tarn Taran, Guru Har Sahai in Ferozepur, Moga Railway Station, Malout Railway Station in Muktsar, Fazilka Railway Station, Ghunas Station in Barnala, Jalandhar Cantt and Kapurthala Railway Station, Tanda Railway Station in Hoshiarpur, Samrala Railway Station of Ludhiana, and Faridkot Railway Station, covering 13 districts.
The trains, including the routes of Amritsar-Delhi, Tarn Taran and Amritsar-Jammu and Kashmir, were mainly affected. These included: Amritsar Shatabdi, Shan-e-Punjab, Nagpur Express, Paschim Express, Golden Temple Mail, Dadar Express, and Jammu Tawi Jodhpur Express.
Besides, nine inter-city trains — Ferozepur-Fazilka, Fazilka-Bathinda, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Hoshiarpur-Jalandhar, Bhagtanwala-Khemkaran, Khemkaran-Bhagtanwala, Amritsar-Qadian, Qadain-Amritsar, and Ferozepur-Jalandhar — were cancelled; while many others were delayed or short-terminated.
“Neither the state nor the Center has time to listen to us. And because of this, we have decided to conduct the rail roko protest…This must have caused trouble to the passengers, but we were left with no other option,” said KMSC general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher.