Farmers' 'Rail Roko' stir hits train services in Punjab

Rail services in Punjab were severely hit today after farmers led by BKU stopped trains at several places on New Delhi-Amritsar route to protest against tardy wheat procurement and demanded higher compensation for crops damaged due to inclement weather.
Rail authorities were forced to cancel some trains besides diverting a few and rescheduling one.
"Railway section between Jalandhar and Amritsar was severely affected because of farmers' agitation for the last several hours, causing great inconvenience to passengers including women and children," Divisional Railway Manager of Ferozepur Division Anuj Prakash told PTI.
Among the affected trains, Amritsar Mail (13005), Nangaldam-Amritsar Express (14506), New Delhi-Amritsar Swarna Shatabdi Express (12029) were stopped due to agitation at Butari, Dhilwan and Beas respectively while Saharsa- Amritsar(15531), Shane Punjab (12497), Saryuyamuna Express (14650) were stopped at Suranussi, Kartarpur and Jandiala Guru, officials said.

"We had forewarned the state government about the farmers' agitation," Prakash said, adding that maintaining law and order was the job of state authorities.
Initially, farmers in small strength tried to disrupt the railway traffic in the morning but as the day progressed, the strength of protesters grew to more than thousand, affecting rail services, rail officials said.

Despite senior officials from Amritsar holding talks with the agitating farmers to allow the movement of trains, no headway could be made in persuading them till the evening, forcing the railway authorities to cancel some trains.
Among the trains cancelled were Amritsar-Hazur Sahib Nanded (12422), Amritsar-Chandigarh Inter city (12412), Amritsar-Howrah (13050), Amritsar-Howrah mail (13006), Golden temple mail (12904), Amritsar Dehradun (14632) and Saryuyamuna Express (14650), DRM Ferozepur said.

He said eight trains were either short terminated or short originated.
Prakash said the passengers whose trains were cancelled or short terminated will be refunded.
Meanwhile, senior officials of Northern Railway will meet Punjab Chief Secretary tomorrow to take stock of the situation as the farmers have now planned not to allow train movement tomorrow as well.
Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan) and Kisan Sangarsh Committee today jointly organised "Rail Roko" agitation to highlight their demands for compensation over crop loss due to unseasonal rain and relaxation in procurement norms.
They have also been demanding a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal over and above MSP of wheat.