Rail Roko protest: protesting farmers have gathered near train tracks in parts of Punjab
New Delhi:
Farmers protesting against the Center’s new agricultural laws have gathered near train tracks in parts of Punjab, Haryana Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka for the “rail roko” protest. The upheaval, which started at noon, will continue until 4 p.m. and will be peaceful, farmers said. Train services have been stopped in several areas as part of a precautionary measure. Security has been strengthened in Punjab and Haryana, with the deployment of the government railway police and the state police.
Ghaziabad, near Delhi, where protesting farmers have been blocking the road since November, has also been put under a security blanket.
In Haryana, the Sonipat, Ambala and Jind train stations were completely blocked. The protesters, many of them women, occupied the railway districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Panchkula and Fatehabad (Bhattu Kalan).
In Punjab, protesters sat on the tracks at many places on the Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar railway route, authorities said. Farmers blocked the Jalandhar Cantt-Jammu railway in Jalandhar and in the Mohali district.
There was a commotion in Bengaluru because the police refused to allow the farmers to protest. “The police do not allow us to keep the rail roko. The police say that permission has not been given for this protest. Why should we wait for the police to give permission when the agricultural unions announced it at the national level?” Said one leader farmer. .
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a farmer union attaché, had announced the nationwide rail blockade last week to lobby for their demand to repeal farm laws.
“Our protest will continue in a peaceful manner until agricultural laws are repealed,” Union leader Bhartiya Kisan of Ambala Gulab Singh Manakpur was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
For the past few weeks, farmers protesting on Delhi’s borders have been addressing the states, saying it was part of their new strategy to take the protest across the country.
The plan to spread the protest came as the stalemate on farm laws persisted despite multiple rounds of talks with the government. Neither one is ready to back down.
Farmers have refused to accept the government’s offer to freeze all three laws for 18 months while negotiations continue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the proposal stands.
Farmers argue that farm laws will reduce their income by eliminating the minimum prices set by the government and leaving them at the mercy of companies. The government says the laws are important reforms in the agricultural sector that will help farmers bypass middlemen and allow them to sell their products anywhere in the country.
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