After meeting with CM Amarinder Singh, Punjab farmers allow trains to run from Monday

The decision by the members of a conglomerate of 30 farmer unions came after a meeting with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

A protest in Punjab against the farm laws | Representational image | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

Chandigarh: After almost a month-long stand-off, Punjab farmers protesting against Centre’s farm laws decided to allow movement of both passenger and goods trains in the state for 15 days starting Monday.

The decision by the members of a conglomerate of 30 farmer unions came after a one and a half hour meeting with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh at the Kisan Bhawan here.

However, the farmer bodies said they will block the rail tracks again if the government fails to resolve their issues.

“We have decided to withdraw the rail roko agitation temporarily in the interest of the state from November 23 evening. If the farm acts are not revoked within 15 days of that we will restart the rail roko agitation blocking both goods and passenger trains. The rest of our programmes including the Delhi chalo agitation on 26 and 27 November will continue,” Jagmohan Singh, member of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee told ThePrint.

The Chief Minister had appealed to the farmer bodies to reconsider their decision and allow passenger trains to run along with goods trains.

Rail roko agitation

The protesting farmers had started the rail roko agitation on 3 October. However, following shortage of fertilisers for sowing of wheat crop as well as of coal for power plants in the state, the farmers allowed the running of goods trains.

The railways had, however, decided not to run goods trains to Punjab till farmers also agreed to allow passenger trains to run. A seven-hour long meeting of a delegation of the protesting farmers with central ministers including Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had failed to yield any results.

On 18 November, members of the conglomerate of 30 farmer unions decided against lifting the blockade on passenger trains. Calling the decision “unfortunate”, Amarinder Singh had said he was expecting the farmers to allow passenger trains to run since the government of India was engaging with them over their demands.