20 trains cancelled as farmers squat on tracks over value cut on damaged wheat
At least 20 trains were cancelled, two had to be short terminated while some others, such as New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi and Una-New Delhi Vande Bharat, were delayed by several hours, as farmers under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha ( SKM) squatted on train tracks at 34 different locations in Punjab to press for rollback of value cut on MSP of damaged wheat grain annouinced by Centre. The farmers are also demanding a higher compensation per acre for crop damage.
The rail roko protest was organised from noon till 4 pm by 33 farmer unions.
The Centre had last week relaxed the limit of shrivelled and broken grain up to 18 per cent against the existing limit of 6 per cent for wheat being procured in Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, and Rajasthan. This came after the respective state governments wrote to Centre urging for relaxation in norms after the wheat in parts of these state got damaged due to inclement weather. While relaxing the norms, Centre decided to impose value cut on shrivelled and broken grains above 6 per cent.
No value cut will be applicable on shrivelled and broken wheat up to 6 per cent. Centre also said no value cut will be applicable on wheat having lustre loss up to 10 per cent, while a value cut of Rs 5.31 per quintal on flat basis will be deducted on wheat having lustre loss above 10 per cent up to 80 per cent.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said his government will bear the burden on account of the value reduction imposed by the Centre, but the farmer unions still went ahead with their protest.
While 32 farmer unions squatted on the train tracks at 18 stations in Punjab, BKU Ugrahan independently did it at 16 different places in 16 districts.
BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said the Centre’s decision to cut value of shrivelled and broken wheat grain during procurement was “anti-farmer”. He said their outfit stopped trains at several places including Ajitwal in Moga, Gidderbaha in Muktsar, Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur, Patti in Tarn Taran, Dhuri and Lehragaga in Sangrur, Kila Raipur and Chowkimaan in Ludhiana, Budhlada in Mansa, Jaito in Faridkot and Jalalabad in Fazilka.
The farmers also demanded a compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre for the damaged crop and termed Rs 15,000 per acre compensation inadequate.
Talking about the protest, BKU Ugrahan general secretary Sukhdev Singh said, “This is our anger against the Union government. If the state government is ready to compensate, let them do it practically. If they give full value to farmers, we will thank the CM”.
Jagmohan Singh Patiala, general secretary of BKU Dakaunda said, “We have lodged our protest against Centre for imposing value cuts on MSP. As far as state government’s announcement is concerned, let us see as whether they compensate all the farmers or adopt a pick and choose policy for self publicity”.
Meanwhile, a passenger in Amritsar said he and his family members were to go to Kanpur but when they came to the railway station, they got to know that the train was delayed due to the protest.
Another passenger in Ferozepur said his train to Delhi got delayed due to the protest and he had to wait at the railway station in the heat.
Passengers in Chadigarh too faced inconvenienc as half a dozen trains got delayed.
Chandigarh-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, which is scheduled to depart at 12.05pm, was delayed by four hours. Vande Bharat, which is scheduled to reach Chandigarh Railway Station from Una at 3.20pm, was around one-and-a-half hour late. Another train to Lucknow was delayed by two hours.
A rail officer from Ambala said, “The protest made an impact”.
Ashok Gupta, a who was to take Shatabdi to Delhi, said, “We were a group of three people. Two of my friends opted to go Delhi via taxi when they came to know about the rescheduling of the Shatabdi”.
Chandigarh Station Superintendent, JP Singh, said, “We kept making announcements about the rescheduled timings of the delayed trains. Officials at Ambala Railway Division decided to reschedule the trains. The morning Shatabdi, which departs at 6.53am, was on time”.
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