Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers refuse to leave protest site near dry port in Kila Raipur

Tribune News ServiceLudhiana, August 4Though the Adani Group has stopped its operations at the dry port in Kila Raipur here following protest by farmers, the latter have refused to leave the site till the farm laws are withdrawn by the Narendra Modi-led Central Government.District committee member of the Hamhoori Kisan Sabha, Punjab, Harnek Singh told The Tribune though the group had stopped operations in January itself andthe workers were told about it but farmers are not goingto leave the protest site because the land belongs to the Adani Group and they were still the stakeholders.“How can we reach the Prime Minister? It is only through the blue-eyed that our intentions will be conveyed to the PM. We are not going to lift the protest till the anti-farmer farm laws are withdrawn by the Modi government,” said Harnek Singh.A jatha has been sent to Delhi to support the farmers protesting there. On an average, 60-80 farmers sit at the site to register their protest against the Union Government.As per information, the operations of the dry port have been shut since January. Many dialogues were held between the administration and farmers to let the operations at the dry port continue but farmers refused to budge. It is learnt that 500-700 containers got stuck there when the movement of goods train was allowed because farmers had locked the gates and had refused to clear the containers following which the importers had to bear huge losses. It was only after requesting farmers to clear the containers, they had allowed the port to operate for a few days.“In those about 10 days, the stocks lying in the containers were lifted and cleared. But since then, the operations of the group here are shut,” said Rajesh Verma, Custom Broker, here.Meanwhile, the industrialists feel that because of this the industry is bearing huge losses. “Industry is suffering in many areas. The farmers need to talk to the Union Government and they must not put industry in financial losses,” said SC Ralhan, president, Hand Tools Association, here.

The Tribune

2021-08-05