TAD NewsDesk, New Delhi: Farmers protesting against the three farm laws passed by the Centre announced a train blockade on the 18th of February, 2021. Farmers across the country came and protested on the stations of various places. They marked it as a four hour “rail roko” protest.
According to the news agency PTI, the Railways deployed 20 additional companies of RPSF troops across the country ahead of the protest.
Arun Kumar, Director General, Railway Protection Force pleaded
“I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. We will be liaisoning with district administrations and will have a control room in place.”
He added that
“We want to persuade them to not cause inconvenience for passengers. We have a four-hour window and we want it (rail roko) to get over peacefully.”
The ‘rail roko’ protest was announced by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the agitations, last week. The railway blockade was third major demonstration by farmers, following the Republic Day tractor rally and the ‘chakka jam’ on February 6.
Some of the highlights of the blockading of trains are as follows:
- According to a senior police officer, the trains scheduled to arrive at Narela were stopped by the protesting farmers in Haryana’s Sonepat.
- One train coming from Bathinda (in Punjab) that was scheduled to arrive here at 11:30 hours has been stopped somewhere before Sonepat, and other trains coming from Kurukshetra, Panipat and Ambala, will be affected.
Rakesh Tikait, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader commented that the government should not expect the farmers to give up now and go back to the fields to cultivate. He claimed that the farmers will do both but will not abandon the issue or return empty-handed.
Mr Tikait said
“If they insisted, then we will burn our crops. They shouldn’t think that protest will end in 2 months. We’ll harvest as well as protest.”
After a long struggle that the farmers have led demanding repealing of the three Centre farm laws will not go in vain they claim. They will continue with the protest till the Centre acts upon the demand.
Source: Indian Express
