Railways to persuade farmer unions to prevent 'Rail Roko'

Having faced frequent disruption in rail services due to protests in Punjab, a senior Railway officer will meet farmers' unions to persuade them not to block trains in future as it causes inconvenience to passengers.
"I will meet representatives of all farmers' organisations which have been involved in 'Rail Roko' agitation for the past several months in the state and persuade them not to block trains in future," Ferozepur Divisional Railway Manager Anuj Prakash said today.
Disruption in train movement causes inconvenince to passengers, he said.
Prakash further said that he would also meet senior officials of Punjab government in this regard.

Railway services had remained paralysed from October 7-13 in Punjab as protesting farmers had disrupted train movement in support of their demands including higher compensation for crop loss.
Not paying any heed to pleas of the Railways and Punjab government, several farmers' outfits including BKU Ekta (Dakunda), BKU Ekta (Ugrahan), BKU (Krantikari), Kirti Kisan Union had gone ahead with their 'Rail Roko' protest.

The farmers' protest had disrupted movement of over 1,200 trains in Ferozepur and Ambala divisions, besides causing financial loss to railways.
Farmers had contended that they had no other alternative except train blockade in order to press the Centre and state governments to accede to their genuine demands.

Earlier also, on several occasions, farmers had squatted on key rail tracks to disrupt rail services as part of their agitation.
Meanwhile, Prakash said that the plan regarding shifting of Ferozepur division to Jalandhar was yet to be firmed up by the railways.