Farmers’ 4-hour ‘rail roko’ protest today, trains to face disruptions
Farmers, who resumed marching towards Delhi on March 6, will hold a nationwide ‘rail roko’ agitation for four hours on Sunday.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha had called for the agitation to continue pressing their demands to the Centre. The ‘rail roko’ protest, which will be held between 12pm and 4pm, comes a few days after the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march.
Top updates on farmers’ ‘rail roko’ protest today:
The nationwide ‘rail roko’ agitation is likely to witness hundreds of farmers protesting in around 60 locations across Haryana and Punjab and is expected to cause some disruptions to the trains.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday said during the ‘rail roko’ protest, hundreds of farmers will sit on railway tracks at several places in Punjab, including Ferozepur, Amritsar, Rupnagar, Gurdaspur districts.
The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), Bharti Kisan Union (Dakaunda-Dhaner) and the Krantikari Kisan Union – farmers’ bodies that are part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha – will also participate in the ‘rail roko’ agitation.
The security has also been tightened across all the borders ahead of the ‘rail roko’ protest.
Authorities in Haryana imposed Section 144 in Ambala district on Sunday to avoid major disturbances. The police have also been positioned in tense areas in the state.
The protest is likely to affect inter-city and state train schedules today. Last month, several trains ran late on the Delhi-Amritsar route because of farmers holding a sit-in agitation at the tracks.
Farm leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who called for the ‘Rail Roko’ protest, said that the farmers will intensify their agitation at the existing protest points till their demands are met by the Centre.
Dallewal on Saturday urged the Centre “not to run away from its responsibility” of giving legal guarantee for MSP on all crops. “The government should not run away from its responsibility. To save the country’s farmers, a law on MSP should be enacted,” he said. The farm leader also asserted that farmers must be given MSP on all crops for their survival under the “C2 plus 50 per cent” formula recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.
Dallewal had also called for all the Punjab panchayats to pass a resolution in support of the farmers’ demands, adding that the Centre used “all tactics” to stop their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march.
The farmers’ protest started on February 13 with the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march where more than 200 farmers’ unions, including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, began marching towards the national capital to press the Centre to accept their demands.
Why are farmers protesting?
The protesting farmers are demanding a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) – a condition they had set in 2021 when they agreed to withdraw their agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. They are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act – 2013, and compensation to families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.