Farmers hold rail roko protests at 85 places in Punjab; several ‘detained’ in Haryana, Rajasthan

In Punjab, the agitation was held in Mullanpur, Samrala, Jagraon in Ludhiana, Devidaspura, and Jahangir in Amritsar; Jalandhar, Jalandhar cantonment, Phagwara, Phillaur, Dinanagar in Pathankot; Mansa, Sangrur, Bathinda, Barnala, Fazilka railway stations, Basti Tenka Wali, Mallanwala, Guru-Har-Sahai in Ferozepur district; Dagru in Moga; Malaut in Muktsar; Khadoor Sahib, Taran Taran; Batala in Gurdaspur, and Shambhu, Rajpura, and Patiala railway stations in Patiala.

In Haryana, the rail roko was reported only in three places at the time of filing this report – Mohda railway crossing in Ambala, Manakpur in Panchkula and Sarsini in Ambala — where the BKU-Shaheed Bhagat Singh staged protests. “The farmers also blocked rail lines in Pilibanga (Rajasthan), Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh) and many other places,” said KMM coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher.

Trains cancelled

In all, 49 trains — including nine that were cancelled — were affected in Punjab alone during the rail roko. The nine trains which were cancelled are inter-city services: Fazilka to Bathinda, Bathinda to Fazilka, Dera Baba Nanak to Verka, Verka to Dera Baba Nanak, Jalandhar to Hoshiarpur, Hoshiarpur to Jalandhar, Jalandhar to Pathankot, Pathankot to Verka and Verka to Pathankot.

Meanwhile, the ongoing dharna at the Shambhu border continued as usual while many protestors from nearby villages went to the Shambhu railway station located nearby and sat on the tracks for four hours.

Besides inter-city lines, the main lines were also affected. Pandher himself was at Devidaspura railway station in Amritsar which is the main Delhi line. He said, “We had announced the rail roko on March 3… We don’t feel happy about sitting on the tracks but this is the only way to make ourselves heard when the Union government has been turning a blind eye to our demands.”

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, coordinator of SKM (non-political) said, “Protests were held nationwide which clearly indicates that farmers across the country are part of this aandolan and they want income guarantee from the government from which the ruling party is running away.”

Tejveer Singh, spokesperson of BKU-Shaheed Bhagat Singh, said section 144 was imposed in Haryana and “farmers were threatened with notices to join the police investigation. I received a notice on Sunday that I have to join the investigation at Ambala police station on Monday regarding an FIR lodged against me during the ongoing agitation. The Haryana government is threatening farmers in one way or the other.”

The farmers’ demands include seeking action against Haryana government officials, against the politicians who ordered the firing on farmers, seeking justice for Shubhkaran Singh who died of an alleged firearm injury on February 21 at the Khanauri border, seeking MSP as a legal guarantee, and calculation of MSP as per MS Swaminathan report’s C2+50 formula, among others.