Farmers protest against Centre's value cut on broken wheat grains in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab squatted on railway tracks at many places in the state as part of their four-hour 'rail roko' agitation against the value cut announced by the Centre on shrivelled and broken wheat grains due to untimely rains.

The protest impacted the movement of many trains and caused inconvenience to passengers.

Several farmer bodies including Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) and BKU (Lakhowal) had announced that they would block rail tracks from 12 noon to 4 pm.

Protesters squatted on rail tracks in many places including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Sangrur, Fazilka, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran. In some places, the protesting farmers even put up tents on the rail tracks.

BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan on Tuesday said that farmers restored to the "rail roko" protest against the Centre for imposing the value cut on shrivelled and broken wheat grains for their procurement. He dubbed the government's decision "anti-farmer".

In Ferozepur, a