The rail roko protest will begin between 12 pm and 4 pm and comes after the protest of March 6, where farmers spearheaded the national capital to press the government to accept the farmers’ demands
As a part of their continued agitation, farmers across the country will participate in a four-hour-long rail roko protest today. Two prominent farmers organisation —Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have called for the nationwide protest in a continued effort to press their demands to the Centre.
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The rail roko protest will begin between 12 pm and 4 pm and comes after the protest of March 6, where farmers spearheaded the national capital to press the government to accept the farmers’ demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on all crops. The protesting farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.
Here are some top points you need to know about the rail roko protest:
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- Train disruptions are anticipated as hundreds of farmers are expected to participate in the rail roko, which is also planned to take place in about 60 locations across Punjab and Haryana.
- Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher spoke with news agency, ANI saying that as part of their agitation that started at the Punjab-Haryana border on February 13, they have called for rail roko across the country today, adding that they have also urged farmers, labourers and common people of the country to support them in the protest.
- Calling it a partial rail roko protest, Pandher said that people might face a little inconvenience today, adding that hundreds of farmers will sit on railway tracks in the districts of Ferozepur, Amritsar, Rupnagar, and Gurdaspur.
- Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal on Saturday urged the Centre not to run away from its responsibility of giving legal guarantee for MSP on all crops, as farmers prepared to participate in the proposed rail roko protest on March 10 to press for their demands.
- Farmer leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal asserted that the farmers’ ongoing agitation will be intensified at the existing protest points and will continue till their demands are met by the government.
- The rail roko demonstration has prompted a tightening of security measures at all borders.
- To prevent significant disruptions, Haryana authorities enforced Section 144 in the Ambala area on Sunday. Additionally, police have been stationed in high-risk regions across the state.
- The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), Bharti Kisan Union (Dakaunda-Dhaner) and the Krantikari Kisan Union — farmers’ bodies that are part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha — will also participate in the rail roko agitation.
- Schedules for state and intercity trains are probably going to be impacted by the protest. A sit-in protest by farmers near the railway rails caused multiple trains on the Delhi-Amritsar route to run late last month.
- In addition, Dallewal had demanded that a resolution endorsing the farmers’ demands be passed by all Punjab panchayats, claiming that the Centre had employed ‘all tactics’ to thwart their Delhi Chalo march.
- Dallewal on his part underlined, “We will have to fight till our last breath and we will fight till demands are met.” He said those who claim that agitation is limited to only Punjab, “then why the curfew-like situation has been imposed on Haryana borders”.
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During the fourth round of talks with farmer leaders on February 18, a panel of three Union ministers had proposed that government agencies would buy pulses, maize and cotton at MSP for five years after entering into an agreement with the farmers.
The demands include pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and ‘justice’ for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act – 2013, and compensation to families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
(with inputs from agencies)
