Punjab CM Amarinder Singh reaches out to Centre ​over Rs 30,000 crore losses as farmers continue passenger train blockade

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh

The supply of commodities like fertilisers and coal for power plants in Punjab continues to be hit due to suspension of goods trains amid the standoff between farmer unions and the Railways.

While the Punjab government says that the industry alone had already suffered losses to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, the Railways said it has incurred losses to a tune of Rs 2,220 crores due to not being able to load 3850 freight trains and cancellation/diversion of 2,352 passenger trains for 55 days since the agitation began.

Chief minister Amarinder Singh has sought help from the Centre to end the impasse and is also likely to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue as the Railways has refused to resume goods trains unless the ongoing blockade of passenger trains by the farmer unions is lifted.

The farmers are protesting against the new agriculture laws enacted at the Centre. They said that the new laws, passed in the monsoon session of the Parliament, would lead to the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, a charge that the Centre has denied.

A Punjab government statement issued on November 19 said that the CM was likely to hold meetings with the farmer unions in Chandigarh besides meeting the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister in Delhi.

“It was the joint responsibility of both, the state and the central governments, to provide a conducive environment for resolving the current crisis resulting from suspension of train services,” the CM was quoted in the statement in many reports.

“The continued suspension of the rail movement was hurting not just Punjab but also the neighbouring states,” the CM said

As many as 30 farmers outfits have, in the meantime, decided to maintain ‘status quo’ with respect to their blockade of passenger trains.

“We have decided to continue to let goods trains go through the railway tracks, but not the passenger trains. The ball is in the Central government court now, as soon as they start the goods train service we will decide on allowing the passenger trains,” Jagmohan Singh, general secretary, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), told The Hindu, after a meeting of farmer outfits earlier this week.

Many reports suggested that industry alone had already suffered losses to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore putting the state under immense pressure amid COVID-19 pandemic. In Ludhiana and Jalandhar alone, the industry has suffered losses to a tune of Rs 22,000 crore while more than 13,500 containers were lying at Dhandari dry port, the reports said.

The CM statement pointed out that as many as 60,000 gunny bags were stuck in Delhi and Rajpura, thus impacting the lifting of paddy crop from grain markets, due to the impasse.