Protesting against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Punjab Government accusing it of ignoring their demands, including farm debt waiver, the farmers — owing allegiance to the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) — on Thursday laid siege to 18 toll plazas across the State for a month. During the agitation period till January 15, the protesters declared that they will ensure toll-free travel for all commuters at the plazas.
The toll plazas are located in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Moga, Jalandhar, and Kapurthala.
The KMSC had decided to intensify its protest, which began on November 26, against the State Government as their demands were being ignored. Notably, indefinite protests have been going on in front of offices of Deputy Commissioners in nine districts of the State since November 26.
The protesting farmers have been demanding, among other things, the farm debt waiver, remunerative prices for their crops, and compensation for damage to crops.
KMSC had given a call for holding protests at 18 toll plazas in the state for a month beginning Thursday to press the State Government to accept their various demands. “During the protest, farmers will not allow the fee to be deducted for any vehicle passing through the toll plazas,” said KMSC general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, adding that they are free for commuters in the state.
At the same time, Pandher said that they will ensure that the employees of toll plazas get their salary for this month. Besides, “we will also not let the toll plaza operators raise toll charges”.
The protest will be held all through the day and night till January 15, added Pandher.
The protesting farmers are also demanding checking the drug smuggling, improving law and order in the state, implementing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee law for crops on the lines of the Kerala Government, increasing the wages of labourers under MGNREGA, making a concrete policy to save Punjab’s waters, providing guarantee for alternative crops to paddy, meeting pending demands of the Delhi morcha (protest), revoking decisions that deprive states from exercising their rights, acting against culprits of the Lakhimpur Kheri episode, and exemplary punishment to culprits of the Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan police firing in 2015.
Pandher said that the farmers, owing allegiance to the KMSC earlier, held protests at the Deputy Commissioner offices in the nine districts but their demands were ignored.
The KMSC has also threatened to make more toll plazas free in the coming days if the state government did not accept their demands.
At one of the toll plazas in Hoshiarpur, the situation turned tense when the employees of Cholang toll plaza protested against the farmers for not allowing them to collect toll fee from vehicles.
The situation got serious when a group of farmers and employees came face to face. Police tried to pacify them, however, a fight broke out between policemen and the protesting farmers.
Strongly opposing the farmers' move of forcibly making the movement of vehicles free of charge, toll plaza employees said if the toll collection is stopped then how will they get their salaries. “We get salaries from here. Farmers are not going to pay us,” said a woman worker deployed at the Cholang toll plaza.
The toll plaza employees also alleged that the District Administration failed in controlling the protesting farmers and further said that some boom barriers of the toll plaza were damaged.
On December 7, Punjab Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal urged representatives of the KMSC to withdraw their protest, assuring them that the state government was striving to resolve the issues of growers.