Chandigarh, September 24
Railway services came to a standstill in several parts of Punjab following the “rail roko” agitation by activists of the Punjab Kisan Sabha for two hours today. The call was given to press for the acceptance of their demands, including that of waiving of farm loans.
Thousands of passengers were a harassed lot with the sabha activists squatting on the railway tracks and not allowing the movement of trains from 1 pm to 3 pm. However, the agitation remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state, sources said.
The agitating farmers, led by state general secretary Lehber Singh Taggar, staged a dharna on the Phillaur-Noormahal level-crossing on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar section at Phillaur. Several trains were held up putting the passengers to inconvenience. The Jammu-bound Indore-Jammu Malwa Express remained stranded at Goraya and the Dadar Express at the Phillaur railways station. The Flying Mail remained stranded at the Phagwara railway station.
Addressing the agitators at a railway track in Rajpura, vice-president of the sabha Inderjit Singh Bhagrana came down heavily on Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for allegedly going back
on his promise of waiving off loans of the farmers.
Mr Bhagrana said all political parties, including the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), had given a raw deal to the farmers with the result that the farm debt had assumed alarming proportions. The political parties would have to pay a heavy price for their acts of omission and commission in the coming Assembly elections, he added.
Meanwhile, passengers of the Ambala-Bathinda train were a harassed lot as the train came around 30 minute late and then it remained stranded for around 90 minute at the local railway station.
Activists of the sabha blocked railway tracks at over 20 places in different districts, including Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Nawanshahr, Bathinda, Ferozepore and Faridkot, a sabha spokesman
claimed.
Hoshiarpur: Activists of the local unit of the Punjab Kisan Sabha staged dharnas at Hoshiarpur, Garhshankar and Mukerian railways stations in protest against the failure of the Punjab Government to pass a legislation for waiving loans of farmers and to pressurise the state government to call a special Assembl session for passing the same.
Activists led by Mr Darshan Singh Matto, vice-president of the state unit of the sabha, and Mr Bhagat Singh, district president of the sabha, blocked rail traffic at the Birampur crossing from 10.30 a.m. to 12.05 p.m. At Hoshiarpur the activists staged dharna from 1.15 p.m. to 2.15 p.m.
At the Mukerian railway station traffic between Mukerian and Bhangala remained suspended for about an hour.
