Farmers protests: Negligible impact of ‘rail roko’ agitation on train services

New Delhi: The ‘rail roko’ agitation in Uttar Pradesh remained by and large peaceful, however no major obstruction was reported in railway operations.

Farmers protested in Chitrakoot, Hamipur, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Fatehpur, Amethi and other districts of the state, demanding the repeal of the three contentious laws.

Farmers assembled at railway tracks and stations but there was minimal or negligible impact on railway services due to the ”rail roko” agitation, a spokesperson for the Indian Railways said.

“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.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions which spearheaded the protests, 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.

Stray incidents of disruption

The railways has deployed 20 additional companies of the RPSF across the country, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
At Kurukshetra in Haryana, farmers climbed on the locomotive of Gita Jayanti Express train which was stationary at that time, resulting in some delay.

In Punjab, protesters sat on tracks at many places on the Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar railway route, officials said.

In Rajasthan, officials said the Rewari-Sri Ganganagar special train was the only train cancelled due to the agitation, while few others were delayed.

In West Bengal too, stray incidents were reported across the state with little or no effect on rail services.

Within an hour of the agitation being over, the Railways said all its services were running normally across the country.