The farmers were back on tracks in Punjab on Sunday. Up in arms against the powers-that-be — both at the Centre and in the State — for not fulfilling their pending demands, the farmers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), staged three-hour rail roko protest at 15 locations in Punjab’s 13 districts affecting the rail traffic resulting in cancellation and delay of several trains.

Notwithstanding the light rain all through the day, the protesting farmers continued with their protest on the rail tracks from 1 pm till 4 pm, after which they vacated the tracks and the train movement resumed. However, the protestors continued their “indefinite” blockade at Gurdaspur, and was not yet lifted.

The protests were held at Jandiala Guru in Amritsar, Batala Railway Station in Gurdaspur, Khadoor Sahib, Patti and Tarn Taran Railway Stations in Tarn Taran, Guru Har Sahai in Ferozepur, Moga Railway Station, Malout Railway Station in Muktsar, Fazilka Railway Station, Ghunas Station in Barnala, Jalandhar Cantt and Kapurthala Railway Station, Tanda Railway Station in Hoshiarpur, Samrala Railway Station of Ludhiana, and Faridkot Railway Station, covering 13 districts.

The trains, including the routes of Amritsar-Delhi, Tarn Taran and Amritsar-Jammu and Kashmir, were mainly affected. These included: Amritsar Shatabdi, Shan-e-Punjab, Nagpur Express, Paschim Express, Golden Temple Mail, Dadar Express, and Jammu Tawi Jodhpur Express.

Besides, nine inter-city trains — Ferozepur-Fazilka, Fazilka-Bathinda, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Hoshiarpur-Jalandhar, Bhagtanwala-Khemkaran, Khemkaran-Bhagtanwala, Amritsar-Qadian, Qadain-Amritsar, and Ferozepur-Jalandhar — were cancelled; while many others were delayed or short-terminated.

“Neither the state nor the Center has time to listen to us. And because of this, we have decided to conduct the rail roko protest…This must have caused trouble to the passengers, but we were left with no other option,” said KMSC general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, adding that today’s protest was to lodge our protest against that injustice and many other demands.

Farmers in Punjab have been protesting since long now against both the State and the Central Governments regarding their demands. The protesting farmers argued that the promises made and assurances given to end the farmers’ agitation in Delhi have not been fulfilled yet.

The farmers have been demanding from the Central Government to act against the persons who attacks the protesting farmers during Kisan Andolan; law guaranteeing MSP; with drawing or cancelling the cases against the farmers during the Delhi morcha; cancelling the bail given to Lakhimpur Kheri accused Ashish Mishra; repealing the Electricity Distribution Act and removing the proceedings of the Electricity Research Bill, 2020. From the state government, the farmers have been demanding to resolve the difficulties of the farmers coming up in the land acquisition process of the road projects without proper compensation. Besides, the farmers are demanding increase in sugarcane prices from Rs 380 to Rs 500, strictly implementing pollution prevention law, and giving compensation to the families of the martyrs of Kisan Andolan.

Pandher said that the dharna at Gurdaspur rail track will not be lifted till the demands of farmers on adequate compensation of their land for Bharatmala project are not met.

At Gurdaspur, the farmers are staging protest against the “forcible acquisition of their land” and in support of their demand for an increase in the minimum support price of sugarcane.

A statement released by KMSC stated that the farmers are protesting against the construction of the Delhi-Katra expressway and the Batala highway. The farmers of Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur are protesting for their sugarcane price and their land.

“We have a few demands with the central and the state government. One, the state government must pay us for our sugarcane. We have not been given anything till now and it has been more than 50 days…The state government had announced fixed a rate of Rs 380 per quintal which has not been allocated to us till now,” said a KMSC representative.

The farmers in Batala railway station alleged that some of their lands are being forcefully acquired for the construction of a highway under the Bharatmala Yojana and they have not been properly compensated.

“We demand the cancellation of bail order by Supreme Court of the accused in Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Ashish Mishra Teni. We demand the arrest of Minister of State for Home Ajay Singh Teni who also represent the Kheri constituency…The Central Government should do something about the Minimum Support Price (MSP). A law has not been made till now, but only a letter was given to us by the government,” added the farmers.

The KMSC had announced that on February 1, they will join the protest dharna at YPS chowk on the border of Mohali and Chandigarh by Qaumi Insaaf Morcha demanding the release of Sikh prisoners who have completed jail terms.