Bharat Bandh Today LIVE: Farmers block a railway track as they participate in 'Rail Roko Andolan' during a protest against the farm bills at an Amritsar village on Thursday. (Reuters)Bharat Bandh Today LIVE Updates: After holding separate protests, the Bharatiya Kisan Union and several other organizations on Friday will hold nationwide demonstration and “chakkajam” against three contentious farm legislations which were passed by Parliament earlier this week.
In Punjab, farmer unions began a three-day ‘rail roko’ protest at six different locations in the state with 1,000 to 1,500 farmers sitting on the tracks at each protest site on Thursday. The Railways partially cancelled 20 trains and short-terminated five trains till September 26 as protesters blocked rail tracks at various places, including Amritsar, Ferozepur, Sangrur, Barnala, Mansa and Nabha.
Farmer groups in Haryana have urged residents to observe a bandh from 10 am to 4 pm on Friday. However, the National Highways have been exempted from the bandh call.
On Thursday, the Congress supported the ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by farmer organisations for Friday, saying millions of party workers stand in solidarity with the farmers’ cause and will participate in their dharnas. Chief Congress spokesperson Randeep Sujewala said that while farmers and farm labourers fill the stomachs of countrymen with their hard labour, the Modi government is attacking them and their fields.
Farmers erect a temporary shade on railway tracks to take shelter from the sun as they block the rail tracks during a protest against farm bills in Devi Dasspura village on the outskirts of Amritsar. (Reuters)
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav drove a tractor during the farmers' protest today.
Supporting the bandh call against three farm Bills, farmer groups in Haryana have urged residents to observe a bandh from 10 am to 4 pm on Friday. However, the National Highways have been exempted from the bandh call. Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Gurnam Singh Chaduni urged arhtiyas (commission agents at mandis) and traders to close their shops on Friday. “There is a warm response to our stir in Haryana… There should be complete chakka jam on Friday. People’s support is must for the same. There should be no vehicles on roads during the bandh call,” claimed Chaduni. He gave a call to farmers to sit on roads except the National Highways during bandh period but asked them to restrain from any type of violence. Meanwhile, in view of the Bharat Bandh call by farmer groups against recent legislations, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij Thursday held a meeting with senior officers of Home and Police Department to review the entire situation in the state.
As a precautionary measure, cops have also been deployed in Chilla area near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border point.
Farmers, under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union and Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), block the Amritsar-Delhi national highway near Phillaur in Jalandhar on Friday.
Markets in Mansa district of Punjab wore a deserted look ahead of the farmers' agitiation on Friday. (Express photo/Raakhi Jagga)
Farmers in Punjab and Haryana will go on a day-long strike today in protest against the farm Bills. As many as 31 farmer organisations have also announced an indefinite ‘rail roko’ agitation from October 1. In Punjab, various unions have started a three-day ‘rail roko’ protest against Centre’s farm Bills at six different locations in the state with 1,000 to 1,500 farmers sitting on the tracks at each protest site. The Railways partially cancelled 20 trains and short-terminated five trains till September 26 as protesters blocked rail tracks at various places, including Amritsar, Ferozepur, Sangrur, Barnala, Mansa and Nabha. The ‘rail roko’ started at about 1 pm on Thursday, will continue till 1 pm on Saturday, said Satnam Singh Pannu, president of Kisan Mazdoor Sangh Committee.
After holding separate protests, the Bharatiya Kisan Union and several other organizations on Friday will hold nationwide demonstration and “chakkajam” against three contentious farm legislations -- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill -- which were passed by Parliament earlier this week. Follow our blog for all the latest updates.