New Delhi : The Samyukta Kisan Morcha umbrella of Farmers Union on Sunday has announced ‘rail roko’ protest. The protest will be held on October 18 nationwide. Farmers are demanding dismissal and arrest of Union Minister of State Home Ajay Mishra in connection with Lakhimpur incident, through this protest. The protest will be held for six hours.
In a statement, the umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three agri laws, said “protests will only be intensified until justice is secured” in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
SKM has alleged that the Union minister’s son Ashish was sitting in the vehicle which mowed over farmers, resulting in the death of as many as eight people on October 3. The farmers were coming out of a protest against the Centre’s three farm laws when two SUVs ran over them.
However, Ajay Mishra has denied any wrongdoing and claims that his son was not present at the site of the incident when it occurred.
The rail roko agitation will be held between 10am and 4pm and it is likely to have an impact on the movement of trains.
“Farmers will block railway tracks for six hours as a protest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday,” the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said at a private event in Aligarh on Thursday.
He said, “Farmers from every district will stage blockades on their nearest rail lines. The minister has been accused of criminal conspiracy but he has not been summoned, nor has he been asked to step down. His son was arrested, but after a lot of delay. We will not get justice if he remains in office. So, unless he is sacked, we are going ahead with our rail roko programme.”
In Punjab, farmers have identified 36 points for the blockade.
“We will make sure no train from any state passes through these points,” said Jagmohan Singh, state general secretary of BKU in Punjab.
In Mathura, hundreds have been asked to turn up at each station. “About 600 people have been asked to gather at Raya station and nearly 400 at Mathura junction to stop trains,” said Raj Kumar Tomar, district president of BKU in Mathura.
Farmer leaders had earlier announced their protest plan if the minister was not sacked by October 12 by burning effigies of senior BJP leaders, rail roko and a maha panchayat in Lucknow on October 26.
Farmers have claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and Ajay Mishra who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at an event at that time.
Ashish Mishra was arrested in the case on October 9.
The SKM also claimed that at effigy-burning events across Uttar Pradesh, several farmer leaders were put under house arrested while some were detained.
SKM condemns this and asks the UP government not to suppress the right to protest of ordinary citizens, it added.
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