RAHIM YAR KHAN: Traffic remained suspended for 10 hours or so on Shahi Road between Rahim Yar Khan and Khanpur when sugarcane farmers blocked the road by parking their tractor-trolleys near a sugar mill at Kotsamaba, about 27 kilometres off here, on Sunday.

A large number of motorists stuck in a gridlock near Chak 86-P between Kotsamaba and Sahja towns on Shahi Road. The farmers blocked the road by parking tractor-trolleys loaded with sugarcane around 7am.

The motorists from Khanpur side returned to Sahja while those from Rahim Yar Khan moved back to Kotsamaba and adopted the 29-kilometre long alternative route of Latki Bagho Bahar Road. Around noon there was a huge traffic problem as vehicles diverted to alternative routes moved at a snail’s pace.

Some farmers told this correspondent that Chaudhry Sugar Mills administration in fact goaded them to try the protest route which would help highlight the issue and restore the crushing operation. The farmers were worried about their produce and a lack of payments.

Deputy Commissioner Jamil Ahmed claimed that the district administration had not closed the sugar mill. He said the assistant commissioners of Rahim Yar Khan and Khanpur, along with the DSP traffic, were on the spot ensuring arrangements to restore the traffic on Shahi Road.

When RYK Assistant Commissioner Dr Adnan Khan Bhitani was questioned why the district administration had failed to control the protesters and restore the traffic, he said he was going to the spot. He said the administration did not want to use force against the protesters but the Khanpur AC and the DSP traffic would negotiate with the protesters.

He said the farmers were being asked to visit Hamza Sugar Mills and Ettehad Sugar Mills to sell their sugarcane.

Traffic was restored at 5.30pm when the farmers removed their tractor-trolleys.

Published in Dawn February 13th, 2017