Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 18: The day-long “rail rook” agitation by the protesting farmers demanding dismissal and arrest of the union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra whose son Ashish Mishra was the principal accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, affected the railway services particularly in north India on Monday.
Farmers sat on the railway tracks to prevent movements of the trains which affected more than 130 locations across northern India, especially Punjab and Haryana, the Railways has said. The blockades affected the schedules of 50 trains since morning, a Northern Railway spokesman said.
Protests were held at many places, including Punjab’s Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Moga, Patiala and Ferozepur and Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat, Kurukshetra, Jind, Karnal and Hisar.
Protesting farmers, including women, raised slogans against the BJP-led government and demanded the arrest of Ajay Mishra. Security was deployed at railway stations in the wake of the ‘rail roko’ protest.
Farmers sat on rail tracks in several sections including the Ferozepur-Fazilka section in Ferozepur city and the Ferozepur-Ludhiana section at Ajitwal in Moga, officials said. The stir disrupted the movement of trains in Punjab and Haryana particularly causing inconvenience to passengers who could be seen waiting for long hours with their baggage.
In the North Western Railway (NWR), rail traffic was affected in some sections in Rajasthan and Haryana with two trains cancelled, 13 partially cancelled and one diverted due to the protest.
The trains that have been affected in the Northern Railway zone include the Chandigarh-Ferozepur Express. Its scheduled departure from Ludhiana was 7 a.m., but has been stranded there due to a blockade in the Ferozpur-Ludhiana section, the official said. The New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express was halted near Shambu station as protesters blocked railway tracks near Sahnewal and Rajpura. “So far, 130 locations in the Northern Railway zone have been affected and operations of 50 trains hindered,” the Northern Railway CPRO said.
In Rajasthan, the agitation affected train movement in Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar of the Bikaner division.
An NWR spokesperson said rail traffic on Bhiwani-Rewari, Sirsa-Rewari, Loharu-Hisar, Suratgarh-Bathinda, Sirsa-Bathinda, Hanumangarh-Bathinda, Rohtak-Bhiwani, Rewari-Sadulpur, Hisar-Bathinda, Hanumangarh-Sadulpur and Sri Ganganagar-Rewari sections was affected due to the agitation.
The Bathinda-Rewari Special train and the Sirsa-Ludhiana Special train will remain cancelled on Monday, he said, adding the route of Ahmedabad-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Special train has also been changed. The train which departed from Ahmedabad on Saturday will run on the changed route via Rewari-Delhi-Pathankot to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, he said.
“The affected locations are mostly in Ferozepur division in Punjab and Ambala division in Haryana. The Moradabad and Lucknow divisions in Uttar Pradesh are normal,” he said. Among the trains affected were Shatabdi Express to Katra and Amritsar and the Vande Bharat Express to Katra. A North Western Railway spokesman said areas in the Bikaner division, like Bhiwadi, Bathinda, Hanumangarh, are affected for which a couple of trains had to be cancelled, about a dozen short-terminated and one diverted.
The Allahabad-based North Central Railway said its train services by and large remained unaffected. However, despite these disruptions, the situation was far better than the last year when train services to and from Punjab remained suspended for two months due to the agitation leading to an unprecedented crisis.
All train services were halted in Punjab on September 24, 2020. By November 6, some 2,200 goods trains and over 1,300 passenger trains were either diverted or cancelled, with the total loss to the Railways then was estimated at around Rs 1,300 crores, the Railways had said.
The Ambala division is critical to train services in northern India as the Ambala Cantonment Junction in Haryana acts as the main gateway to Punjab for the broad-gauge line. From Ambala, the broad-gauge line goes into the heart of Punjab touching important cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and up to Amritsar. This runs almost parallel to the old Grand Trunk Road, emulating a historical pattern of movement of commerce, men and material
The rail roko call was given by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body for farmers’ unions spearheading the protest against farm laws since last year
In a statement, the SKM said on Monday train traffic was halted only for six hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a token and “protests will only be intensified until justice is secured” in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
Farmers have claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles at the time of violence, an allegation denied by him and Ajay Mishra who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at an event at another place at that time.
Ashish Mishra was arrested on October 9 and is still in the judicial custody.
Some harassed passengers at the railway stations hit by the protest, however, appealed to the agitating farmers to gherao the Politian’s and their residences instead of halting the train services affecting the common man. “They should think about the public,” he said.
A group of protests put up a banner with ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ written on it in front of a train forced to stop at Moga. They also carried photos of four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur violence.
Demanding the arrest of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher on Monday said the KMSC will hold protests at 20 places in 11 districts of Punjab.
Four of the eight people who died in the violence on October 3 were farmers, allegedly knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers. Angry farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver.