Farmers stage four-hour rail roko at 62 places in Punjab

livemint.com:

rail roko’ at 62 places in Punjab, ratcheting up a widening stir for better procurement prices among other demands. The call for the ‘rail roko’ protest, held between 12 pm and 4pm was given by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and came after farmers resumed their ‘Delhi chalo’ march on 6 March. In Haryana, several farmers were allegedly detained by the police in Dabwali and Ellenabad as they headed to the protest sites.

A similar situation was reported at Dausa in Rajasthan, according to KMM. The farmers had not been released till press time. The main SKM organization was not part of this call.

The railways will release a list of trains that were cancelled or diverted after the protests, said the divisional railway manager (DRM) of Ferozepur. In Punjab, the agitation was held in Mullanpur, Samrala, Jagraon in Ludhiana, Devidaspura, and Jahangir in Amritsar; Jalandhar of Jalandhar cantonment, Phagwara, Phillaur, Dinanagar in Pathankot; Mansa, Sangrur, Bathinda, Barnala, Fazilka railway stations, Basti Tenka Wali, Mallanwala, Guru-Har-Sahai in Ferozepur district; Dagru in Moga; Malaut in Muktsar; Khadoor Sahib, Taran Taran; Batala in Gurdaspur, and Shambhu, Rajpura, and Patiala railway stations in Patiala. Farmers in punjab blocked the tracks in multiple places.

The ongoing sit-in at the Shambhu border continued as usual while many protestors from nearby villages went to the Shambhu railway station and sat on the tracks. In the case of Haryana, the ‘rail roko’ was reportedly witnessed in only three places– Mohda railway crossing in Ambala, Manakpur in Panchkula and Sarsini in Ambala. “The farmers also blocked rail lines in Pilibanga (Rajasthan), Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Jhabua (Madhya