The Railways on Friday said except in some locations in Punjab and Haryana, the Bharat Bandh called by farmer unions protesting the Central farm laws had “almost zero impact” on rail services across the country.
In the morning, protesters had squatted on railway tracks at 44 locations across the two states which led to four Shatabdi trains being cancelled, 35 other passenger trains detained and the movement of 40 goods trains affected, according to a northern railway spokesperson.
“Barring some limited number of trains in Punjab and Haryana, the bandh has had almost zero impact across the nation. Other than in these two states, around five to six trains were delayed for some time. Less than 0.5% of trains impacted nationally. Trains are running smoothly,” said Railway spokesperson D J Narain.
The 44 locations where train movement has been disrupted fall under the Delhi, Ambala and Ferozepur divisions of the railways. The northern railway spokesperson, however, said that now things have normalised.
The Samkyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has called for the bandh from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to mark four months of the farmers’ agitation at Delhi’s three borders — Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders demanding a complete repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price on their crops
