Punjab: Railways cancelled 41 trains due to protests by farmers

Northern Railway has said that 41 trains have been cancelled due to farmers' agitation in Punjab while 11 trains have been stopped before reaching the destination.

Railways say that most of the trains affected due to this are on the Delhi-Katra route.

Farmers in Punjab are continuously opposing the three agricultural laws recently passed in Parliament. These are the three agricultural laws - Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Simplification) Act, 2020, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Trade Law on Agricultural Services, 2020 and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

According to the news agency ANI, the Railway Ministry had already clarified that in many places farmers have closed the railway track.

Due to this, freight trains have been cancelled and the Railways are losing revenue.

Recently, the Punjab Legislative Assembly passed the bills in a special session to reject the agricultural laws passed by the central government.

After this, a delegation headed by the Chief Minister of the state Captain Amarinder Singh met Governor VP Singh Badnaur and requested him to approve the Agriculture Bill passed by the Assembly.

Captain Amarinder Singh also staged a protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on the 4th of November to cancel the goods trains for Punjab

Earlier in September Farmers in Punjab launched protests, blockading rail tracks and road transport, since the government enacted three farm-sector laws.

The three laws, together, allow agribusinesses to freely trade farm produce by easing restrictions, permit private traders to stockpile essential commodities for future sales and lay down new rules for contract farming.

The farmer organisations are likely to press for the MSP system to be written into law which is high on their agenda.

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