Jalandhar: Farmer protests throw daily commuters’ lives out of gear

Jalandhar, February 22

Frequent protests by farmers have upset the lives and plans of commuters travelling every day for the work. Even on Thursday, commuters shuttling between Jalandhar and Ludhiana faced blockade near Phillaur. Those going towards Pathankot side had to take a diversion from Cholang near Bhogpur and those heading towards Amritsar had to take to village routes near Dhilwan.

Dharnas were organised on the call of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Qadian) to protest over the death of young farmer Shubhkaran Singh on the Khanauri border on Wednesday.

The commuters said while farmers had already held Punjab bandh and blocked all highways on February 18, another blockade today by farmers within four days should not have happened. “We understand that farmers have issues with the BJP government in Haryana and the Centre. We are with the food producers and understand that their demands are genuine. But, holding road blockades and making common people suffer and that too frequently should not be done,” said Subhash Sharma, a resident of Phillaur.

The people are apprehensive that since the stalemate between the farmers and the governments continue, the situation could become worse.

“Till now, only the Punjab border area has been affected. People shuttling between Punjab and Haryana or those going to the national capital are affected. But now, with farmers disrupting traffic within Punjab, the problems have magnified. It is high time that the government takes control of the issues,” said a college professor shutting between Jalandhar and Bhogpur every day.

Since the Samyukt Kisan Morcha has announced that its activists would burn effigies tomorrow and hold a tractor rally on February 26 across the state, the commuters said they had practically no scope for travelling peacefully for the next another three to four days.