Cane growers block Jalandhar-Pathankot highway, rail tracks

Thousands of farmers blocked the Jalandhar-Pathankot national highway and Jalandhar-Jammu railway track at Mukerian on Thursday to protest against nonpayment of sugarcane crop of last year and the announcement by private mills that they would not crush cane in the coming season.

The blockade started in the morning and continued till evening. Farmers, mainly cane growers, who had gathered under the banner of Doaba Farmers Agitation Committee, blocked the NH around 9.30am and then at around 10.30am, they also blocked the railway traffic. This disrupted rail traffic to and from Pathankot and Jammu.

As hundreds of vehicles were caught in the blockade, police diverted traffic via Hajipur. Trains going towards Jammu were also halted at Phagwara and were diverted to Amritsar-Pathankot route. It caused delay of all trains going towards Jammu and starting from there. While Hoshiarpur administration tried to persuade farmers to lift the blockade and assured that their demands were being conveyed to the Punjab government, they refused to budge.

In the evening, Punjab cane commissioner Ranjit Singh conveyed to Hoshiarpur deputy commissioner Anindita Mitra that the government was already working on their demands and assured that private mills would also crush cane in the coming season. However, agitating farmers refused to relent stating that they would lift the blockade only after getting a written and time-bound assurance.

The blockade was lifted by farmers at around 7.30 pm after getting a written assurance from the officials that pending dues would be paid by September 15 and mills would start crushing from November 10.

On August 16, farmers led by Doaba Farmers Agitation Committee had blocked NH-1 at Kartarpur for a few hours and had served an ultimatum in their memorandum addressed to the chief minster that if their issue was not resolved by August 19, they would come on the roads again to start direct agitation. Private mills, which crush two-third of the sugarcane grown in Punjab, have issued public notices saying that they would not run their plants in the coming season as the cane price was high and rate of sugar was low.

Meanwhile, Punjab BJP has urged the state government to take quick steps to resolve issues of farmers. “We request the chief minister to intervene and make private millers to announce that they would run the mills. We welcome the money being released by the state government to cooperative mills to make payment to farmers. But the entire issue need to be addressed as private mills also owe money to cane growers,” said Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma