Chandigarh, 02 November. The ‘stop the rail’ movement of farmers in Punjab remains a crisis for Punjab. Amidst the corona epidemic, the festive season of the state is getting agitated, unemployment has increased. Due to the closure of goods trains, the paddy has grown and the wheat sowing starting this month has become a cloud of crisis. Agricultural experts have started talking about the lack of fertilizers in the state, the sowing of wheat, and the decline in production. So far, the state has lost thousands of crores of rupees due to the ongoing peasant movement in Punjab.
- Farmers adamant on continuing the movement, trains started closing, paddy fields were in place
- Due to acute shortage of food, coal is not able to reach even Punjab, Bardana has not reached from the districts of UP
Discussions on the problem of wheat sowing, production reduced, discussions started
Till Sunday evening, news of the lack of fertilizer from across the state is being issued by the government. The government has publicly acknowledged that the urea fertilizer crisis is occurring. The state needs 5.35 lakh tonnes of DAP and 1.5 million tonnes of urea, but both are facing a crisis due to the movement of goods trains. According to Agriculture Department Director Rajesh Vashisht, the sowing of wheat will reduce the production of wheat due to lagging behind. Because farmers are not allowing goods trains from other states. While the season of paddy purchase is also going on. There is also a huge lack of sacks for paddy. As many as two and a half thousand bags of gunny bags purchased by the state government are stuck in Delhi and Moradabad as farmers have blocked rail tracks in Punjab and have been on strike for 38 days.
In big mandis like Moga in Punjab, warehouses no longer have space to plant paddy. The coal crisis in Punjab is also affecting the electricity supply. The process of power cuts has started since October 30. Goindwal Sahib’s thermal plant is now running out of five thermal plants in the state. Due to the coal crisis, one-by-one the power generation in other thermal plants has been stopped at some places or less. The peasant movement, which started with the Central Agricultural Acts, has now included many demands, including the cancellation of the power agreement made by the previous government with private thermal plants. Therefore, farmers have been staging the rail lines leading to private thermal plants. There is no hope of ending the movement right now.
Farmers are sitting in front of toll plazas and petrol pumps of private and corporate companies in the state, which have been taken by the people of the state, their work has stopped. A few days ago, at a meeting of farmers ‘organizations in Chandigarh, petrol pump dealers had suddenly joined and put their point and asked the farmers’ organizations to reconsider their decision. After the closure of the work of the institutions of the corporate houses, the employees are also being removed from there. Similar situation is happening in industrial institutes. Contract workers in industries are being removed, while salaries of other employees have been cut.
An estimated 10,000 employees are directly affected, while the number of indirectly affected is much higher. Due to the closure of trains, the work at railway stations is also closed. The thousands of people have been idle and unemployed. After the Corona hit, the trains started running but have now stopped again. Goods worth crores of rupees have been lying in railway godowns, including Ludhiana, since September 30, waiting for the trains to run. Import-export work is stalled.
According to the Ludhiana Custom House Agents Association, 20,000 containers a month come from Ludhiana, which cost thousands of crores, they are all jam. Various railway stations in Punjab, which came under the railway division Firozpur and Ambala, had an income of more than 17 crore per day in exchange of freight, which has also been closed for the last 38 days. Works including bicycle, hosiery, rice processing, leather, cotton, tractor parts, hand tools industry are all stopped.
Karan Gilhotra, chairman of the state’s PHD chamber, said that although it is not possible to estimate the loss from the movement yet, but if the movement does not end, the economic situation in Punjab will be lost, which will require a long time to stand up. He believed that farmers along with others are also suffering losses due to the movement, but such a movement will not produce any solution. The special thing is that Chief Minister Captain Amarendra Singh has also appealed to the farmers that if the fury is against the central government, then do not let the loss of Punjab from the bandh.
Vijay Kalra, the provincial president of the Federation of Adharti Association of Punjab, who is supporting the farmers’ movement, said that farmers should reconsider their decision regarding railways. Because the state is being harmed by stopping the trains. While the entire economic situation of Punjab is being affected.(HC)