Farmers Movement Archive

Convince farmers to move away from tracks, bizmen tell Congress government

LUDHIANA: The fight against central government’s new farm laws by the farmers has resulted in huge loss for them, claimed city businessmen adding that it is time state government resolve the crisis by putting an end to rail roko andolan by convincing farmers. The business community of Ludhiana said the leaders, instead of solving the issue, are playing blame games and indulging in publicity stunts like dharna in New Delhi. Vinod Thapar, chairman of the Knitwear Club said, “Be it garment, bicycle, auto parts or sewing machine industry, all of us are facing extreme shortage of raw materials and are unable to ship consignments of finished goods due to the rail roko andolan. But instead of taking steps to address this, our elected representatives are giving dharna in Delhi, which is not going to yield any result. We request Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh to convince the farmers to allow movement of the goods trains before factories shut down permanently and thousands of jobs are lost.” According to Jagbeer Sokhi, president of the Sewing Machine Development Club, “The dharna at Delhi by the ruling party leaders of Punjab is not going to have any impact on the central government as it has already cleared its stand on farm bills and even on the movement of the trains that it will only start when state government assures full clearance of the tracks. Why is the state government non-committal on the clearance of the tracks and instead still blame the Centre for not running the goods trains?” According to Sunil Mehra, state general secretary of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, “We sympathise with our farmers, who work so hard to feed us. But their misfortune is being manipulated by the state government, which, by not making sure goods trains continue uninterrupted, has crippled the entire trade and industry and is causing losses worth several thousand crores in Punjab. It would have been better if the leaders of the state instead of giving dharna in Delhi would have organised at meeting with the farmers and convinced them to give up rail roko andolan.”

The Times of India

2020-11-05

Ludhiana