Farmers extend stir till Oct 12, Rlys incur Rs 100-crore loss

The agitation would be on till October 12, the date given by SAD for holding talks with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to resolve their issues. 

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has appealed to farmers to call off their stir, saying the government is ready to accept every genuine demand of theirs and would leave no stone unturned to bail the distressed farmers out of the severe crisis.

“Our core committee of eight farmers’ outfits has decided to extend Rail Roko agitation till October 12,” BKU (Ugrahan) General Secretary, Sukhdev Singh Kokri said.

The ‘Rail Roko’ agitation, which began on October 7 and was extended, has affected the running of 53 trains. The protest has caused whopping financial loss of Rs 100 crore to the Railways even as more than 550 trains have so far been hit in four-day long farmers’ stir in the state.

“We expect that financial loss (to Railways) could be up to Rs 100 crore because of ongoing farmers’ protest in Punjab so far,” said Divisional Railway Manager, (Ferozepur Division), Anuj Prakash.

With agitating farmers now extending their stir for next two day, the loss to Railways could exceed Rs 100 crore mark, railway officials said. “There are a lot of things involved which need to be looked into in detail to ascertain exact financial loss like refund to passengers, train diversion, cancellation, rerouting, stopping of goods trains, freight loss, etc,” Prakash said.