Farmers protesting against the three farm laws passed by the Centre, blocked train tracks as per the pre-announced four-hour long nationwide protest.
"Rail Roko" protest was observed on Thursday as agitating farmers gathered at railway tracks in parts of Punjab, Haryana Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Farmers protesting against the three farm laws passed by the Centre, blocked train tracks as per the pre-announced four-hour long nationwide protest in order to create pressure on the government to repeal the laws.
Security was tightened at protest sites near the Delhi border where farmers have been protesting since November as well as in Punjab and Haryana. In Haryana, the train stations at Sonipat, Ambala and Jind were completely blocked. Protesters, many of them women, squatted on the railway lines in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Panchkula and Fatehabad (Bhattu Kalan) districts. Similarly, in Punjab protesters sat on tracks at many places on the Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar railway route, officials said. Farmers blocked the Jalandhar Cantt-Jammu railway track in Jalandhar and in Mohali district, reported NDTV.
Meanwhile, in Bengaluru the police did not allow protesters to agitate as per the "rail roko" protest. A farmer leader said that they were not allowed to protest as permission had not been granted for it. "Why should we wait for the police to give permission when it was nationally announced by farm unions," he added. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the main body of farmer unions leading the protests, had announced last week a peaceful protest across the country to be held on February 18 from 12 pm to 4 pm.
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