Punjab protest: Farmers block rail tracks for 3 hours for action in Lakhimpur Kheri case

On first anniversary of the violence, protesters demand sacking of Union minister Ajay Mishra and release of arrested farmers

Demanding the sacking of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra, members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) blocked rail traffic for three hours from Monday noon on the first anniversary of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that claimed eight lives.

Farmers blocking a rail track during a protest against the central government at Vallah in Amritsar district on Monday, the first anniversary of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

KMSC general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said: “We are holding protest at 17 locations in the region. Rail traffic is blocked on the Amritsar-Delhi, Amritsar-Khemkaran and Amritsar-Pathankot routes. We will burn the effigy of the central government at eight locations, namely Muktsar, Mansa, Barnala, Malerkotla, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar and Nabha to protest the lack of action against Mishra.”

Farmers were staging a protest at Tikunia village on October 3 last year against a visit of then Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya when four of them were crushed under the wheels of a convoy of cars. In the subsequent violence, four others, including two BJP workers and a journalist, were killed.

He said the Centre should also revoke the notification issued for amending the distribution of electricity licence rules. He alleged that the government was now going to distribute electricity to private companies. “The right of distribution of electricity belongs to state governments, but by issuing this notification, the central government is taking it into its own hands and giving it to private houses,” he claimed.

He demanded ₹7,000 compensation per acre for managing paddy stubble.