Farmers' protest: Rail traffic hit in Amritsar, passengers suffer

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 3

The movement of trains on the Amritsar-Delhi route was disrupted following the railway blockade by activists of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee to impress upon the government to accept their demands here on Monday.

Consequently, three trains were cancelled, two trains were short terminated, an equal number short originated, besides several others were rescheduled from the Amritsar railway station. The Amritsar-New Delhi Swarn Shatabdi was rescheduled to depart at 6.40 pm against its original time departure time of 4:50 pm. 14650 Amritsar-Jayanagar and 06933 Amritsar-Pathankot trains were rescheduled.

Besides, 04750 Tarn Taran-Beas, 04751 Beas-Tarn Taran and 06994 Bhagtanwala-Khemkaran trains were cancelled. Two short terminated trains were pairs of the Ludhiana-Amritsar and Amritsar-Nangal Dam.

Two trains short originated commenced their journeys from other stations. The 04592 Amritsar-Ludhiana train originated from Sura Nussi and Amritsar-Nangal Dam short orignated from Jalandhar City.

Passengers were greatly inconvenienced. Those intended to travel within the district preferred journeys in buses. A passenger, Harjeet Singh, said tickets of his family members to undertake journey to the NCR to attend a family function were already booked. However, the sudden disruption of rail traffic due to blockade came as a rude shock to them. He said they did not have any other alternative, but to await at the railway station for the rail traffic to resume.

Farmers block rail tracks in Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib

Tarn Taran: Various farmer organisations blocked trains by organising dharnas on rail tracks here on Monday. Some of the farmer organisations associated with the SKM sat on a dharna at the District Administrative Complex here on Monday.

Farmers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, held dharnas on rail tracks in Tarn Taran, Patti, Khadoor Sahib and Khemkaran in which a huge number of women and young farmers too participated.

Addressing on the occasion in Tarn Taran, Satnam Singh Manochahal, district president of the KMSC, condemned the Union and the state governments for their alleged anti-farmers policies. He said both Union and state governments were not serious about protecting the farmers’ interests as a result of which farming was going to be a dying profession.

He said governments were introducing pro-corporate sector policies at the cost of farmers.

Lashing out at the AAP-led Punjab Government, Satnam Singh Manochahal warned the government against allotting land to panchayats as it was made cultivable with decades of hard work of farmers. He said farmers of the state would resist the state government move in case it tried to snatch farmers’ land, which they had been tilling for decades, but now the state government had passed an act under Punjab Village (Rural) Common Land Act, 1948, to take back their land which they cultivated for the last six to seven decades.

The farmers unions associated with the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) too organised a dharna in front of the District Administrative Complex and presented a memorandum to district officials. /OC

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