Farmers block rail traffic

Tribune News Service

Batala, October 18

Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of Kisan Sangharsh Committee, held a protest and blocked traffic on the Pathankot-Amritsar railway track in Batala. When the reports last came in, Gurdaspur DC Vipul Ujwal and Batala SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman were engaged in deliberations with farmers to break the stalemate.

The agriculturists were demanding immediate release of arrears towards sugarcane growers.

Raising slogans against the state government, union leader Sarwan Singh claimed that for the last one year, the government had not cleared the payments of sugarcane. “On the one hand, the government asks us to go for diversification from the wheat-paddy cycle and on the other hand, we are not getting our payments on time,” he said.

“Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had assured us that all dues pertaining to last season’s sugarcane crop would be cleared by September 30 but till now, not even a single rupee had been paid to any farmer of the state,” he added.

Several trains had to be cancelled due to the protest. Police personnel were deployed in and around the Batala station.

Dump stubble in front of DC’s office

• Bathinda: Activists of the Kirti Kisan Union on Thursday dumped paddy stubble in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here to stage protest against the state government over the issue.
• Addressing the protesters, union’s Bathinda convener Amarjeet Honey claimed that the state government had failed to find a solution to stubble-burning problem in the last 18 months.
• He alleged that the government was putting pressure on the debt-ridden farming community while asking them not to resort to stubble-burning. TNS