Farmer stir hits rail, road services in Punjab

Railway passengers had to undergo a lot of inconvenience with over 60 trains either cancelled, rescheduled or delayed on Thursday on account of the massive farmers’ agitation underway in Punjab.

Thursday was the second day of the two-day ‘rail roko’ agitation which is now likely to continue for two more days with talks of truce remaining inconclusive. Thousands of farmers have been squatting on railway tracks at several places in Punjab demanding adequate compensation for the damage caused to standing cotton crop because of the attack from the ‘white fly’.

The peace train between India and Pakistan, the Samjhauta Express, too, was cancelled on Thursday with reports of likely disruption. The train was denied permission from the Wagha side to enter the Attari railway station in Punjab. In the last two days, close to 80 trains in the area have either been cancelled or diverted to longer routes causing several hours of delay. In Amritsar, Bathinda, Moga, Ludhiana and many other places, passengers were left to face enormous inconvenience in wake of the farmers’ agitation.

The police on Wednesday rounded up scores of agitating farmers, some of them forcibly lifted from the tracks. The BKU (Ekta) leaders, however, claimed that thousands of agitating farmers have been rounded up by police. They said that more farmers have joined the agitation. There have been reports of road traffic also being hit. The traffic remained affected on Bathinda-Sirsa, Ganganagar-Ferozepur, Bathinda-Bikaner, Ludhiana-Ferozepur, Bathinda-Patiala and Delhi-Mansa railway track.