Industrialists hail clearing of roads; wrongly blamed for blockade: Farmers
Several industry leaders on Thursday hailed the clearing of farmer protest sites on the state’s border points with Haryana, saying it would help revive the state’s economy that suffered on account of transportation bottlenecks that hampered the flow of produced material to other states.
Farmer leaders rejected the charge and said the roads were blocked by security personnel deployed on the Haryana side of the interstate border by the BJP-led Centre and the state government to prevent them from marching to Delhi — their actual destination for the stir.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) leader Guramaneet Singh Mangat said farmers have been projected as villains.
“Farmers were peacefully marching towards Delhi last year. They were stopped, shot at, and faced teargas shells. The Haryana Police placed concrete slabs in their way. But such is the scale of government propaganda that farmers are being blamed for blocking the highway,” said Mangat.
However, on the condition of anonymity, one of the industrialists that hailed the move said the opening of the roads would give a fillip to tourism and the state’s economy.
“The year-long blockage has caused an irreparable loss to trade and industry,” the industrialist said.
According to sources, the police action had come after traders in Ludhiana told AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal during a meeting on March 17 that it would be difficult for the party to get votes in the Ludhiana (West) Assembly bypoll if the farmers’ protest continued.
This feedback reportedly played a role in the Punjab Government’s decision to clear the protest sites.
Badish Jindal, president of the World MSME Forum, had been vocal about the economic impact of the protest. He had claimed that Punjab had been experiencing a 15-20% decline in business activity.
Meanwhile, Rajesh Kumar from Patiala who works in a pharmaceutical firm, said he had to shell out extra money to reach Ambala on a daily basis for his job.
