People suffer, protesting farmers shift stir venue to Kathunangal toll plaza

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 17

The farmers blocking the Bhandari Bridge shifted the protest venue to Kathunangal toll plaza late Wednesday night as the protest caused a lot of inconvenience to commuters and resulted in huge resentment among residents.

Long traffic jams were witnessed due to the blockade on the bridge till late in the night on Wednesday. Commuters were stuck in traffic jams for hours. With the resentment among people increasing, the union agreed to shift the protest outside the city.

Even many farmer organisations expressed the view that such unplanned actions by a few unions were resulting in erosion of the support base of the agrarian community. “Presently, the problem with the farmer unions is that there are nearly 40 unions. Every union, in its race for one-upmanship, is announcing programmes in its individual capacity and is causing inconvenience to people,” said a farmer leader.

While residents faced trouble due to protest on Bhandari Bridge on Thursday, many of them travelling on Amritsar-Pathankot road were a little relieved as they did not have to pay toll charges. The farmers protesting on the Kathunangal toll plaza forced the employees to let the vehicles cross without paying the toll.

The protest is being held under the banner of the Bharti Kisan Union Ekta Sidhupur over the issue of compensation for loss of cotton and other crops, action against local SDM for anomalies in compensation for land acquired for Jammu-Katra highway, compensation for selling moong crop below MSP, compensation for cows which died due to the lumpy skin disease and many other demands.

The farmer leaders stated that the government had accepted all demands put forward by the union on October 6 and promised to issue a notification within a week.

Long traffic jams witnessed

• Long traffic jams were witnessed due to the blockade on the bridge till late in the night on Wednesday. Commuters were stuck in traffic jams for hours. With the resentment among people increasing, the union agreed to shift the protest outside the city
• Even many farmer organisations said that such unplanned actions by a few unions were resulting in erosion of support base of the agrarian community
• While residents faced trouble due to protest on the Bhandari Bridge on Thursday, many of them travelling on Amritsar-Pathankot road were a little relieved as they did not have to pay toll charges

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