Minimal impact on services: Railways

NEW DELHI: While farmers demanding the repeal of agriculture laws declared their fourhour rail blockade on Thursday a success, railway officials said it had “negligible impact” on train services. Delhi remained largely unaffected by the agitation.

Farmers of Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka staged sit-in protests on the railway tracks in these states, while demanding the repeal of the three farm laws.

“Trains were stopped from 12 noon to 4pm at hundreds of locations across the country as part of the rail roko agitation under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM). It was a peaceful and successful event,” SKM leader Jagmohan Singh said. He added that by engaging in the programme, people had shown that they “opposed the attitude of the central government towards the farmers’ movement”.

The farmers had announced the four-hour rail roko as part of their efforts to scale up the agitation against the three contentious farm laws. “We had given the call for the rail roko agitation to be held outside Delhi,” said Harinder Singh, media coordinator at SKM.

“Anger among farmers is intensifying and the central government will have to repeal the laws,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said in a statement on Thursday. Farmer leaders also visited various spots on Thursday and appealed to people to “come to the Delhi borders to strengthen the movement.”

Train movement in all zones was normal by Thursday evening. “The rail roko agitation passed off without any untoward incident. There was negligible or minimal impact on the running of trains across the country. A majority of the zones reported not a single case of any stoppage of train by the agitators,” the ADG (PR) of the Railway Board said in a statement.

“A few trains were stopped in some areas, but train operations was normal by evening. While dealing with the rail roko agitation, utmost patience was exercised,” the statement added.

A majority of the zones reported not a single case of any stoppage of train by the agitators. RAILWAY BOARD, in a statement