Farmers protest on Wednesday entered the second day and the much-important Jalandhar-Ludhiana National Highway continued to remain closed. Although district administrations and the Punjab Police opened the service lane on Tuesday to ease the traffic somehow, protesting farmers on Wednesday sat on dharna even on the service lanes. Seeing the state's traffic choke due to farmers' protests, the Police have opened diverted routes. In fact, the Jalandhar Rural Police also announced the diverted routes for people traveling to Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ambala, and even for people coming or going to New Delhi.
For people who are planning to go to Jalandhar from Ludhiana, the Police have diverted the route from Ramamandi. Heavy traffic is being eased from Talhan village located in Ramamandi, Jalandhar. This road passes through Talhan and passes near Chahedu Bridge of Phagwara.
Notably, people who are coming from Delhi, Panipat, Ambala, and Ludhiana by road are being stopped near Paragpur in Jalandhar Cantt. Furthermore, to evade the heavy traffic, vehicles are being told to go from Paragpur village. The Paragpur route is connected to the city. Therefore, vehicles are accumulating in the BSF Chowk area. However, the vehicles are slowly moving in the diverted routes despite heavy traffic in the city.
Protesting farmers threaten to block railways
the farmers union has warned the Punjab Government and the District Administration that if any representative will not meet with them and agree with their demands they will stop trains as well. It means, the farmers' protest can be stretched and people may face more difficulties in the upcoming times. It is worth mentioning that farmers had a meeting with a government representative on Tuesday night. However, no parties reached any conclusion. As per farmers, the person who had a meeting with them did not possess much power.
The demand for higher sugarcane tariffs is at the heart of this protest, as farmers say the increase is necessary to preserve their livelihoods and the economic viability of agriculture as a profession. Apart from the sugarcane price hike, farmers are also demanding to roll back the legal cases registered against farmers over stubble burning.