Ghaziabad: The ‘rail roko’ call by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the agitation against the three new farm laws, had “negligible impact” on train traffic in the country, Railway authorities said today. The call evoked some response particularly in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, today, February 18, 2021. The protesting farmers blocked train tracks for four hours at many places from 12 pm to 4 pm during their “nationwide” protest.
In National Capital Region of Delhi, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation shut down entry and exit at four metro stations, including at the Tikri border, one of the epicentres of the farmers’ agitation, for nearly four hours today in view of the security situation due to a rail blockade called by the protesters.
Suburban services in Mumbai in Maharashtra though, were not affected by the Rail Roko Agitation. Freight trains and freight revenue were also not affected and authorities said the protests passed off without any untoward incident.
The Ministry of Railway stated that in all 30 Mail trains were affected out of total 12800 trains run by Indian Railways (including goods and passenger trains). Several other trains were able to make up time, some of the long distance trains which were yet to reach destination were expected to make up time further.
Report by Santushti Raina
