Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab: Farm groups block tracks to private power plant, silo & stop train

BATHINDA: A day after resumption of goods trains in Punjab after three weeks, farm outfits on Friday stopped a train heading for a corporate group silo at Dagru village near Moga, disrupted coal supply to the Independent Power Plant (IPP) Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) in Mansa and did not allow an empty passenger train to move out of the state. Farmers protesting against the new central farm laws stopped an empty passenger train at Romana Albel railway station in Faridkot district and forced it to return to Ferozepur. The farmers, assuming that the railways had started passenger trains, stopped the it for three hours. The 30 farm organisations on October 21 had decided to vacate railway tracks and allow the movement of goods trains to bring coal, fertilisers and grains. After vacating the tracks, farmers had started protests at railway stations or vacant places near tracks to check that no passenger trains runs. Thermal plants in Punjab received coal on just 2 daysIt was conveyed to the state government and the railways that only goods trains would be allowed to resume, and that too due to the need to supply coal and DAP," said BKU (Ekta Dakaunda) activists Balwinder Singh and Mohan Singh protesting at Romana Albel railway station. Ferozepur divisional railway manager (DRM) Rajesh Aggarwal told TOI that the train was parked at Ferozepur since October 1. Farm organisation BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) announced its plan to block the rail route used for sending coal to Nabha Power Limited’s thermal plant in Rajpura, Patiala district on Saturday. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said, "Power purchase agreements by previous SAD-BJP government with independent power plants are not in favour of Punjab. We want these to be cancelled and the state government to go in for generating power from its own plants." TSPL had received six rakes of coal on Thursday evening and Friday morning before the farm organisation disrupted rail traffic. Likewise, the L&T plant had got some rakes out of the 22 in transit. "We have sufficient coal to run the plant on partial load for a few days. We are hopeful the government will help resolve this deadlock soon and the situation will normalise," said TSPL CEO and whole-time director Vikas Sharma. On spotting the train headed for Adani group silos, farm activists protesting at Moga railway station headed towards Dagru, nearly 12 km from Moga, on two-wheelers and tractors and blocked the rail track outside the silo plant and bolted the gate on the tracks. They finally agreed to allow only the engine to exit. "We will not allow any train movement at the corporate group businesses," said All India Students Federation activist Vicky Maheshwari.

The Times of India

2020-10-24

Amritsar