Pending cane dues: Farmers set to block NH-1 'indefinitely' on Friday

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 19

Commuters from Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Pathankot and other adjoining areas, who are to shuttle across Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch of NH-1 in Dhanowali by road or rail are likely to face a huge bottleneck on Friday as the farmers are likely to block the passage indefinitely.

The call for bandh had been announced yesterday by the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee over the issue of pending dues of sugarcane from the mills and no enhancement in the State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane for the past four years.

While the state government announced to hike the SAP by Rs 15 per quintal, this has not satisfied the farmers who have got further agitated.

“The government has played a cruel joke with us. By announcing a meagre Rs 15 per quintal hike, they have ridiculed us. The state government did not have any one of us for representation during finalising this amount. We were expecting the SAP on sugarcane to be hiked to Rs 370 at least as the existing price of Rs 295 to 310 (varying according to variety). Haryana is already offering Rs 358 per quintal,” fumed Manjit Rai, president, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba).

He added, “We will now have an intensified protest. We had planned to block only the road earlier, but now we will also block the rail passage. Also, all the 32 farmer unions of Punjab have offered us support. Our protest tomorrow at the site may have more than 30,000 farmers and it will go on indefinitely till all our demands are met to our satisfaction. We will also have our meeting at the site tomorrow morning and we may jam the entire Punjab.”

The Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee chooses the site at Dhannowali strategically as the NH and the railway crossing here are very closeby and both the dharnas can be managed simultaneously. In the past few years, whenever the farmers announce to hold a protest here, the response remains massive and the dharna goes on for hours and even gets extended to the next day.

Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said the police authorities had been directed to make proper arrangements. The city police have planned diversions to ensure that the public does not suffer much. The diversions have been planned via Pathankot Chowk to Rama Mandi, from Partappura side for those coming via Nakodar Chowk, and via Cantt Road to Phagwara.

DCP (law and order) Jagmohan Singh said, “We will try to ensure that the commuters face the least harassment. We have ensured a proper deployment of staff to guide the commuters on the alternate routes and ensure smooth flow of traffic.”

About the plans of the farmers to block rail traffic too, he said, “It will be too early to comment on that. The farmers may not go to that extent.”