The four hour rail-roko stir called by farm unions under the banner of Jharkhand Rajya Kisan Samanway Samiti (JRKSS) demanding the rolling back of the three contentious farm laws went off peacefully on Thursday. There was no major impact on the movement of trains, except some minor delay in the running of a few local passenger trains.
The stir was staged between 12pm-4pm, in sync with the nationwide call of farmers union, many of whom are still protesting at the Delhi borders for over three months now. Hours ahead of the stir to begin, heavy deployment of railway protection force (RPF) and other agencies was noticed at different junctions and rail tracks in and around Ranchi.
At Tatisilwai station in Namkum, protesters briefly blocked the Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi express train, however, passenger trains plying from Ranchi were on schedule, said officials at Ranchi station. In Koderma, Delhi- Howrah Poorva express was halted for 10 minutes due to the sit-in along the railway track.
A senior official of Ranchi railway station unwilling to be named claimed that ‘all was well’. “The protest didn’t have much impact in Jharkhand. All trains were on time. Enough deployment of security forces ensured that the protesters didn’t hold up tracks for long during their symbolic protest,” he said.
Sufal Mahato, convenor of JRKSS however termed the rail-roko as a grand success. Talking to The Telegraph Online, he said, “Protesters blocked tracks in numerous places such as Namkum, Nagri, Lohardaga, Jamshedpur, Bahragora, Chakulia, Gumani, Dumka, Gomia, Latehar among others across different railway divisions. Thousands of protestors comprising farmers, labourers, workers joined the movement against union government’s anti-farmer, anti-worker, anti-poor policies.”
He added that based on the reports from different parts of the state, the agitation remained a grand success. “From here, the protests will also be intensified till the time farm laws are taken back,” said Mahto.
Agreed Sushanto Mukherjee of Kisan Sangram Samiti, a Left back outfit, which was part of the protest stating that the farmers movement will only grow due to sustained indifference of the union government. “Wrong policies of the government are only forcing people across different strata of the society to wage war against it. Not just the farmers, every section of the society—common man, working class, labourers, and other marginalised are today staring at a bleak future. One by one, everyone is starting to raise voice against this government which they brought with thumping majority in 2019,” he said
