Farmers bring rail traffic to a grinding halt
Thursday, 06/09/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120906/punjab.htm#1
Amritsar : Rail traffic came to a grinding halt following a bandh call given by 17 farmer and labour unions across the state today. Many trains were cancelled or delayed as union activists blocked various rail sections.
Activists raise slogans against the government at Rajpura on Wednesday. Tribune photograph
The activists blocked rail traffic at the Amritsar railway station, causing and inconvenience to a large number of passengers. At least six arriving and departing trains were delayed while four local trains were cancelled due to the blockade.
The rail authorities halted the New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi for hours at the Manawala railway station, around 10 km outside Amritsar, in view of the blockade while the Delhi-Amritsar Shan-E-Punjab remained halted at the Jalandhar railway station, awaiting the lifting of the dharna that lasted around three hours.
The Shatabdi arrived at 4 pm, while the Shan-E-Punjab reached the city around 4.30 pm.
The departure of the Jallianwalla Bagh Amritsar-Tata Express was delayed by over three hours as it departed at 3.30 pm against its scheduled time of 12.30 pm. The Saharsa Express, which was to depart at 1.15 pm, left at 3.05 pm. The Amritsar-New Delhi Shan-E-Punjab left around 5.30 pm against its schedule time of 3.10 pm.
Among the local trains, DMUs between Amritsar-Pathankot, Amritsar-Qadian and Amritsar-Khemkaran were cancelled. Similarly, the DMU Hoshiarpur, which was scheduled to arrive at 12.30 pm, had not arrived till the filing of this report.
The farmer unions were staging the protest in support of their demands, including drought relief in view of a weak monsoon this year.
The farmer leaders lashed out at the government, alleging that instead of extending drought relief to the farmers, the Central and state regimes had burdened them with fresh taxes.
They demanded a drought relief of Rs 10,000 per acre for each of the affected farmers, besides Rs 10,000 each to the family of farm labourers. They also sought immediate rollback of fresh taxes imposed by the state government. They further demanded ownership rights of land being cultivated by the farmers for decades in the border villages of Ajnala.
Fazilka: Farmer blocked rail traffic at Malout chowk level crossing for three hours in the afternoon. Official sources said the Jalandhar-bound train (No. 74974) and the recently started Ferozepur-Sriganganagar train (No. 14602) got stranded at the Fazilka railway station. Besides, the Fazilka-bound train from Ferozepur had to be sent back from the Ladhuka railway station while the Fazilka-bound Katdapur train had to be terminated at the Lakhewali railway station. A heavy police force was deployed at the dharna site to check any untoward incidence.
Ferozepur: As many as six trains were cancelled and 12 others were affected due to the “rail roko” protest by farmers in various parts of the division. Six trains on the Amritsar-Pathankot, Batala-Qadian and Amritsar-Khemkaran sections were cancelled. Sources said the Ferozepur-Ludhiana passenger train was stranded at Dagru, Ferozepur-New Delhi passenger at Faridkot, Ahmedabad-Jammu Tawi at Makhu, Malwa Express (Jammu-Nanded) at Ludhiana, Flying Mail at Jalandhar and the New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabadi was stranded at Jalandhar for two to four hours.
Faridkot: Farmers, labours and members of ex-servicemen unions staged a protest dharna on railway tracks in Kotkapura town here. The protesters blocked the rail traffic for over three hours. Three passenger trains were stranded at the Golewala, Faridkot and Kotkapura railway stations on the Bathinda-Ferozepur section. “The protest remained peaceful. The tracks were cleared at 3.30 pm,” said Gursher Singh Brar, SHO City, Kotkpaura.
Sangrur: A large number of farmers and labourers blocked rail traffic from 12.30 pm to 3 pm at the Chhajli railway station, near Sunam. The protest remained peaceful. State president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Joginder Singh Ugrahan and other farmer leaders addressed the protesters.
