Farmers hold rail roko; Rlys says negligible impact
Farmers on Thursday sat on railway tracks at many places across India as part of the fourhour ‘rail roko’ protest against the Centre's three farm laws, with officials saying trains were halted at stations as a precautionary measure.
Normal movement of trains on various rail routes was disrupted as farmers squatted on tracks.
There was negligible or minimal impact on railway services due to the ‘rail roko’ agitation called by farmer groups on Thursday, a spokesperson for the national transporter said.
He said majority of the zonal railways reported no incident due to the protest.
“The rail roko agitation passed off without any untoward incident. There was negligible or minimal impact on running of the trains across the country. Train movement in all the zones is normal now," the spokesperson said.
"Majority of the zones have reported not a single case of any stoppage of train by the agitators. Few trains were stopped in some areas of some Railway zones but now train operation is normal and trains are being operated smoothly. While dealing with the Rail roko agitation, utmost patience was exercised by all concerned," he said. Earlier, around 25 trains were regulated by the Railways on account of the agitation.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions which is spearheading the protest, last week had announced the rail blockade to press for its demand to repeal three new farm legislations. The SKM had said the blockade will be held across the country from 12 pm to 4 pm.
The railways has deployed 20 more companies of the RPSF, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.