Punjab virtually came to a halt on Tuesday in response to the Bharat Bandh call, given by the agitating farmers in protest against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

The bandh was observed peacefully across the State with the people — not only from rural but urban Punjab — coming in huge numbers to openly support the state’s protesting farmers, who have been on the forefront of this battle of survival against the Centre.

Farmers blocked highways by parking their tractors or sitting in the middle of the roads, squatted on railway tracks disrupting train services on two sections for a few hours, shouted slogans against the Centre, staging sit-ins at some toll plazas, while some women protestors performed shabd-kirtan in the middle of the road.

Responding enthusiastically to the call, the bus services were suspended, teachers and students too staged protests, traders pulled down the shutters, petrol pumps were shut, all shops, businesses, vegetable or grain markets remained deserted at most places across Punjab.

Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association president Sukhchain Khaira claimed that over 50,000 government employees had taken mass casual leave to mark their support.

“The traffic was disrupted by 30 farmers’ organizations across Punjab and markets remained closed.

All sections including traders, shopkeepers, transporters, labourers, employees, youth, students, women extended their support to make the bandh a success by expressing solidarity with us,” said Bhartiya Kisan Union-Ekta (Dakonda) senior vice president Manjit Singh Dhaner.

Dhaner said that the people from all walks of life in Punjab have extended their full support during the shutdown and all the farmers’ organizations are thankful to them.

The public and private transport services were largely shut in Punjab, with disruptions witnessed in the neighbouring Haryana too, mainly due to the blockades set up by farmers in Punjab during the “chakka jam” hours between 11 am and 4 pm.

The key roads blocked by farmers included Chandigarh-Delhi, Amritsar-Delhi, Hisar-Chandigarh, Chandigarh-Patiala and Bhiwani-Delhi national highways.

The farmers also blocked the railway tracks on Bathinda-Mansa and Bathinda-Ambala routes, forcing the railways to stop trains short of their destinations.

Several bodies representing government employees, arhtiyas (commission agents), labourers, lawyers, and transporters also extended their support to the protest. The petroleum dealers in the state closed filling stations to back the call for the nationwide strike. There are over 3,400 fuel pumps in Punjab.

Punjab’s private colleges also abstained from online classes in support of Bharat Bandh call. Joint Association of Colleges (JAC) co-chairman Anshu Kataria said that online classes for over 10 lakh students studying in colleges of Punjab were not conducted on Tuesday.

At many places, milk and vegetable supply was hit as agitating farmers stopped vendors from entering the city.

Members of Punjabi University teaching faculty and students closed campus gates and held protest in solidarity with protesting farmers.

All major political parties in Punjab — including the ruling Congress and the opposition Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal — backed the protest.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the industries were not shut down by the managements. The multinational giant, Nestle India Limited, continued to operate its production units despite the fact that its labour union had supported the farmers’ agitation.

Congress MLA Raja Amarinder Singh Warring, along with his supporters, staged a protest outside BJP leader and former Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani’s house in Fazilka.

Hundreds of farmers including women also protested at Mehraj, the ancestral village of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in Bathinda district.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and other areas have stayed put at various Delhi border points, protesting against the new farm laws, which they fear will dismantle the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporates.

PCMS DOCTORS HELD RALLIES

Expressing solidarity with the farmers protesting against the three farm laws, Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) doctors held gate rallies

in all the government hospitals of the state.

State president Dr Gagandeep Singh said that doctors were joined by members of different health employee unions and NGOs. “The struggle has become a pan India movement as every section of society will be affected if the agriculture sector suffers,” he said.

The Association reiterated that PCMS has been supporting the farmers unions since September 25 and has also started sending medical teams to Delhi borders where farmers from across the country are protesting peacefully since November 25.

Association demand roll back of the laws and appeals to the Government to sit with the stakeholders to bring new reforms to improve the conditions of the farming sector.