A day after Punjab’s protesting farmers decided to allow passage of passenger trains for 15 days beginning Monday evening with Railways also announcing to resume both goods and passenger train services in the State, Kisan Sangharsh Mazdoor Committee is still sticking to its stand.

Despite efforts by Punjab Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to prevail upon the Committee’s protesting agriculturists on Sunday, the Committee has made it clear to not to allow running of passenger trains till their demand of revoking the farm laws was accepted.

The Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will now meet the representatives of the Kisan Sangharsh Mazdoor Committee on Monday, following which its members would take the decision. Notably, the Committee has all along been boycotting all meetings with the Central Ministers and officers to hold talks on the issue.

Notably, 30 farmers’ unions on Saturday agreed to allow passage of passenger trains from Punjab along with the goods trains “in the state’s interest” with the warning that the tracks would be blocked again if the Centre failed to address their concerns.

However, with the Kisan Sangharsh Mazdoor Committee, which is holding its protest at Jandiala Guru on the Amritsar-Delhi tracks, deciding not to do a U-turn, resuming the rail services do not seem possible.Other farm unions have also appealed the Committee to support the decision. “It would have been good to arrive at a consensus on this decision…better coordination is what is needed at this point of time,” said BKU Ekta Ugrahan president Joginder Singh Ugrahan.

On the other hand, the Kisan Sangharsh Mazdoor Committee has accused the Centre of blackmailing Punjab, and farmers. “If we let them blackmail us, they would continue to do so…We have vacated the tracks to pave way for goods trains, but not the passenger trains,” said committee member SS Pandher.

Notably, the CMhas been urging the protesting farmers to let the train services resume as the blockade had, so far, caused a loss of Rs 40,000 crore to the State. Pointing to the shortage of coal, fertilizers, and other essential commodities, the CM had stated that a large number of units had closed down in Ludhiana and Jalandhar due to scarcity of raw material.