Chandigarh: The nine-hour shutdown by farmer unions demanding a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) for crops was almost complete in Punjab on Monday, with commuters badly hit. Crowds were seen at railway stations and bus stands with the suspension of transportation services.
Shops and business establishments were closed in almost the entire state. Amid the shutdown, farmers were seen serving tea to commuters stranded on their way amidst the chilly, foggy weather.
There was no report of any major untoward incidents in the state, despite minor skirmishes, a senior police official told IANS here. The police were seen asking motorists to avoid travelling on certain routes to reach their destination.
The impact of the shutdown call given by the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) was also seen in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, as roads leading to these states were closed in Punjab.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher thanked the people for the success of the shutdown. He claimed that the farmers staged sit-in protests at 175 places in the state.
However, he said emergency services operated normally. Traders, transporters, employee unions, ex-servicemen, teachers, social and other bodies lent support to the shutdown, he claimed.
A total of 200 trains, including luxuries like Vande Bharat and Shatabdi Express, were disrupted and started plying after the shutdown ended at 4 p.m.
A cancer patient from Gujarat was stranded at the railway station in Ferozepur. His wife said they had to go to Himachal Pradesh to get some medicine, but the hampering of the train services left them stranded.
Seventy-year-old farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, whose hunger strike entered its 35th day and refused medical treatment, asked the Central government to look into the demands by initiating a dialogue with the protesting farmers. He thanked the people for the success of the shutdown.
Farmers fear the authorities might use force to remove Dallewal from the protest site and be admitted to a nearby hospital.
The bandh call was given in support of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for more than a month seeking the implementation of farmers’ demands.
Farmers, comprising women and old, were on the streets, forcing shops to down shutters and motorists not to move ahead. Most of the national highways in several cities and towns remained shut, badly impacting the movement of daily commuters and office-goers.
Reports of the shutdown of shops and business establishments were received from Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Moga, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and other places.
The impact of the shutdown was more effective in rural areas where farmers, carrying their outfit flags, closed almost all roads.
With the private bus transporters joining the strike, most of the private buses were off roads in Punjab. Several schools and offices have announced a holiday in the wake of the shutdown call.
In Chandigarh, the impact of the shutdown was not seen.
The farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri borders between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 in support of their long-pending demands. Besides the legal MSP for crops, they have been demanding loan waivers and reforms to improve conditions in the agricultural sector.
(IANS)
