The ‘Rail Roko’ protest by farmers across Punjab has been called off for Friday.Sarwan Singh Pandher of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) said the protest has been postponed for three days after the Punjab government appealed to them to not go ahead with the protest. The protest had been jointly called by KMM, and five constituent unions of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, besides some other unions.The ‘Rail Roko’ protest, planned at 18 places in the state, was to be held against the tardy wheat procurement in the wake of damage to grains caused by untimely rains between late March and early April, as well as unusually high temperatures in late February.Up to 80 per cent lustre loss and 20 per cent shrivelled grains in wheat has been reported coming at mandis of Punjab.The farmers and the state government have been demanding relaxation in wheat procurement specifications to account for shrivelled grains, lustre loss and damaged grains. While relaxation in procurement norms have already been announced for Haryana and Rajasthan, farmers in Punjab are still waiting for these relaxations so that their crop can be sold.Meanwhile, nine central teams that collected wheat samples in Punjab have already submitted their report to the Union Ministry of Food and Public Distribution. The relaxed Uniform Procurement Specifications are expected to be announced today.