CHANDIGARH: As many as 42 trains were cancelled while services of 121 were affected in Punjab on Friday as farmers squatted on several tracks and blocked a few routes as a part of a protest to demand financial assistance for losses incurred in recent floods, a legal guarantee to Minimum Support Price (MSP) and a debt waiver from the centre.
The vehicular traffic was affected on the Chandigarh-Ambala-Delhi National Highway as the farmers blocked it. The traffic on the was diverted at Lalru. The three-day protest that began on Thursday, was witnessed in 17 districts of the state including Moga, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, Patiala, Ferozepur, Bathinda and Amritsar.
The farmers squatted on the Amritsar-Delhi railway track in Devidas Pura, while in Hoshiarpur members of the Azad Kisan Committee, Doaba, sat on a dharna at the local railway station. Farmer leader Gurbachan Singh said, “We want a Rs 50,000-crore flood relief package, waiver of the entire debt of farmers and labourers, and Rs 10 lakh and a government job in compensation to the kin of farmers who died during the protest."