New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The farmers four-hour ‘rail roko’ protest over the three farm laws had “minimal or negligible” impact on train operations across the country and passed off without any untoward incident, railway officials said on Thursday.
Railway Ministry spokesperson DJ Narain said, “The rail roko agitation passed off without any untoward incident. There was negligible or minimal impact on running of the trains across the country.”
He said that the train movement in all the zones is normal now.
The official said the majority of the zones have not reported a single case of any stoppage of trains by the agitators.
He said that North Central Railway, South Eastern Railway, Southern Railway, South Eastern Railway, North Frontier Railway, Central Railway and South Western Railway did not report any untoward incident.
The spokesperson said that a few trains were stopped in some areas of some zonal railways but now train operations are normal.
“While dealing with the rail roko agitation, utmost patience was exercised by all concerned,” he added.
In view of the four-hour long rail roko protest, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had deployed 20 companies in the states of West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in the day, at least 25 trains in Northern Railway zone were regulated in the wake of the farm unions’ four-hour ‘rail roko’.
In Bihar, the protestors had stopped trains at Sachiwalay Halt in Patna, at Arrah, Rohtas and Bihar Sharif railway stations.
The impact of the rail roko was also visible in several parts of Rajasthan, as farm leaders were seen standing on the engine at the Gandhinagar railway station in Jaipur. The farmers also blocked the railway tracks in Chomu.
In Uttar Pradesh, the impact of the ‘Rail Roko’ call had negligible impact. Farmers made efforts to stop trains in Meerut, Ballia, Prayagraj, Mathura, Bahraich, Bijnor, Amethi and Aligarh but their efforts were thwarted by alert policemen.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, farmers blocked the railway tracks.
