Farmers call off strike and head back home at Devi Dass Pura village near Amritsar on Wednesday. PTIAfter an intervention by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the farmers protesting on Amritsar-Delhi railway track ended their protest on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had issued notice to the farmers’ outfit, Kisaan Majdoor Sangharsh Committee, leading the dharna, to appear before it following a petition filed by Mohit Kapoor, a Patiala-based resident, seeking removal of the protestors from the train track.
The president of the Kisaan Majdoor Sangharsh Committee appeared Wednesday before a High Court division bench of Chief Justice Krishan Murari and Justice Arun Palli.
In the resumed hearing, the bench asked the farmers’ committee leaders to end the protest and further submit their list of demand in written to the Punjab government through the Advocate General within 24 hours. The farmers thus withdrew the agitation in the afternoon.
The court also directed the Punjab government to look into the demand of the farmers within 10 days and take a decision, besides submitting a status report on the next hearing of the case scheduled for March 19.
The court also passed an interim order stating that action will be taken against the protestors further if the agitations are not conducted at designated places as stated by the government and if there is any hindrance made to the transport services.
The farmers have been squatting on the rail tracks in Amritsar in support of their demands, including full loan waiver, stopping auction of land, against arrest of farmers and for payment for sugarcane crop with 15 per cent interest, since March 4.
Meanwhile, the railways has restored the services of five cancelled and 13 other diverted trains, hours after the farmers’ agitation was called off, northern railways said Wednesday.
