Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab farmers clear tracks, no clarity on trains

CHANDIGARH: With no trains plying in Punjab for nearly two weeks, farmer unions on Friday lifted all rail blockades in the state as state government machinery prevailed on the protesters to move away from tracks and stations. Farm unions also ended protests outside Reliance and Emaar petrol pumps which are managed by dealers, but continued agitations outside pumps directly run by the corporates. There was no confirmation from the Centre about when rail services would start again. Farm organisation BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), in line with its decision taken on Thursday, vacated internal tracks leading to two independent power plants (IPP) in Mansa district and near Rajpura in Patiala. “The rail network all across the state of Punjab is presently totally clear for uninterrupted movement of goods trains,” a Punjab home department statement said in Chandigarh. The statement came after Railway Board chairman V K Yadav earlier in the day said the railways needed 100% security clearance from Punjab to resume operations. Yadav had said as many as 22 sites were still to be cleared of protesters and added partial resumption of services was "not feasible" and that all blockades must be removed. By the evening, 21 sites had been cleared. At Jandiala, some farmer activists, the IG border range and the SSP Amritsar were still trying to convince the office-bearers of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee on Friday late evening to vacate the railway platform. The home department official said that the committee of cabinet ministers was still engaged in parleys with various farmer unions to allow movement of passenger trains in public interest. Meanwhile, even as Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) announced to vacate tracks for the movement of goods trains, it said it had extended its ‘rail roko’ agitation till November 21 and would sit near tracks at various places. “In the larger interest of Punjab, we have decided to clear rail tracks and allow goods trains to pass, but not the passenger trains," KMSC president Satnam Singh Pannu said. He said they would not obstruct the goods trains. Earlier, railways minister Piyush Goyal had asked MPs from Punjab to get the tracks vacated and take responsibility for the security of personnel and trains. When it came to ending protests outside petrol stations, farmer outfits said they had no intentions of causing losses to businessmen of the state. In the morning, police visited Moga and Barnala railway stations and asked farmers to vacate platforms, after which protesters shifted to a park within the railway premises in Moga and moved outside in Barnala. BKU (Exta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri said they did not want to give any excuse to the Union government to not resume train services. "We have vacated the tracks of private thermal plants and are now sitting near their gates. We want railways to resume services at the earliest, as farmers need fertilisers and want food grains to be moved out of go downs for creating space for new crops, as also for resuming supplies to coal-fed plants," he said. The dealers of filling stations thanked farmers for the decision. Punjab Reliance British Petroleum Mobility Ltd (RBPML) Dealers Welfare Association president R S Pathania said, "We are grateful to farmers for lifting their protest from petrol filling stations managed and run by dealers only. There are 85 petrol filling stations in Punjab owned by dealers. In the last one month of blockade, we faced losses to the tune of crores." Farmers had launched an indefinite blockade of railway tracks in the state on October 1. The BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) had vacated tracks at two places on October 21 and the rest 30 farm unions had vacated all tracks on October 22 and shifted to railway stations. It was only on these two days that the movement of goods trains had taken place. After an empty passenger train was stopped and a train at Adani Group silo in Moga was laid siege to, railways again stopped plying of trains. On October 23, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) blocked tracks going to the two thermal plants.

The Times of India

2020-11-07

Chandigarh