Sugarcane farmers' dharna lifted, residents heave a sigh of relief

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 24

As the five-day road/rail blockade organised by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha over the issue of sugarcane prices ended today, the residents from across the region finally heaved a sigh of relief.

• Farmers: People must know our side of story

Road, rail services restored

• As the protest by farmers on Dhannowali railway track and on Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch came to an end, both the Railways and Roadways restarted their services on normal routes from late Tuesday evening. However, Railways suffered heavy losses due to this five-day protest. The Railways has already refundedRs53.65 lakh for 12,300 cancelled tickets. The refund was issued for the tickets booked between August 20-23. On Tuesday too, the Ferozepur railway division had to cancel 27 trains, divert 11 and short-terminated 11.

“It was a tormentous experience, which no government should allow to let it repeat,” most residents have been fuming adding that if the state government was to agree to increase the sugarcane State Assured Price (SAP) to Rs 360 per quintal, it should have been done on first itself.

“What was the point of ruining our lives for five days? While it was a fight between the farmers and the state government, it were the common people who bore the brunt. We had to daily waste money on more fuel and spend extra 45 minutes on travelling via the longer route,” say many daily commuters from Phagwara to Jalandhar, who have had to struggle daily to reach their work places.

Doaba has seen protests of sugarcane farmers at the same site but most of the time, these used to end by the evening of the same day. Five-day protest on NH-1 has been the longest protest so far in the past nearly two decades. While those commuting by cars or bikes only had to bear with the problem of heavy traffic and bad roads, those whose train or bus journey ended abruptly midway at unknown locations and had to walk with their luggage at odd hours to find a cab or some other means of transport were the worst lot.

The ending of the dharna has caused a major relief to the students, who were worried over the conduct of their fourth round of JEE (Main) slated from August 26 onwards. The main examination centre for the students in Jalandhar and around falls on the same stretch of road just along the site, which was blocked by the farmers for five days.

Anju Marwaha, whose son is to appear for the examination on August 27, said: “We had planned to leave for the examination centre two hours prior to the scheduled time to keep a same margin of time. Thankfully, there should not be a problem now. I was praying for the issue to get resolved in today’s talks.”

Even those running showrooms on the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway, who did not get any customers for the past five days, were feeling easy. “While the eateries like McDonalds and Burger King falling close to the dharna site still managed to do a good business, those running showrooms of automobiles, branded items etc were the major sufferers,” said the owner of an apparel store.

The ending of the dharna also brought a huge respite for the transporters whose trucks got caught up in the stretch along the various connected highways, including those leading towards Ludhiana, Amritsar or Pathankot. “We had no issue with meals as we partook langar at the dharna site, but getting caught up midway like this for five days made us lose patience. We will finally push off after 10 pm today when the traffic all around gets cleared,” said Gopal Nath, a truck driver from Jammu.

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