Chandigarh: Life was severely hit and the rail and bus traffic was crippled owing to the 7 am-to-4 pm bandh call given by the farmer unions who have been protesting against Centre for the past over 10 months to press for their demands including minimum support price (MSP) and debt waiver.
Even as groups of farmers staged ``dharna’’ on several stretches of national and state highways and railway tracks under the aegis of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha across the state, the ``bandh’’ also impacted the normal life as well as commercial establishments which remained shut in most of the towns and cities of all the 23 districts of the state till 4 pm where the marketplaces wore a deserted look.
While the Punjab state bus services had been suspended from 10 am to 2 pm, the private bus operators supported the farmers’ bandh call by keeping off the roads from 7 am to 4 pm.
Also, while the railways had already cancelled or rescheduled many trains on Sunday itself in the wake of bandh call, the vehicular traffic was severely affected as a large number of vehicles were seen stranded on many stretches on the Delhi-Amritsar national highway no 44 (also known as GT road) near Mohali, Patiala, Phagwara, Nokodar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, besides several other national and state highways connecting bordering states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir with Punjab.
Even though the state authorities had made diversions, the motorists were immensely hassled because of the long jams at several points.
According to media reports, in all over 200 trains connecting Punjab were impacted - with 163 being cancelled and 14 being rescheduled - by the day-long bandh.
Meanwhile, it may be recalled that while various Khaps of Haryana have also announced their support to the ongoing protest of the farmers camping at Shambhu and Khanauri Punjab-Haryana borders and held that another mahapanchayat would be called in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district if farmers concerns would not be addressed by January 9, 2025.
Also, the farmer unions have also given a call for ``kisan mahapanchayat’’ at Khanauri border on January 4, 2025, amid the worsening health of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, also a cancer patient, who has been on a fast-unto-death since November 26 last.
