Besides, some 700 farmers also give thikri pehra (night vigil) and have set up three checkpoints to monitor and control access to the area. Anti-fog torches were given to volunteers to keep an eye around the pandal where Dallewal was fasting.Dallewal also condoled the death of three women in an accident while travelling to attend a parallel Mahapanchayat held at Tohana. The women, members of BKU Ekta Ugrahan, were killed and 36 others sustained injuries when the bus they were travelling to SKM Mahapanchayat in Tohana in Haryana met with an accident at Barnala in Punjab. The three deceased women were identified as Sarbjit Kaur (55), Balbir Kaur (67) and Jabir Kaur, all residents of Kotha Guru village in Bathinda. In another accident, five activists of BKU (Sidhupur) were injuried when their bus met with an accident near Barnala while on way to Khanauri to participate in the Kisan Mahapanchayat.After attending the Kisan Mahapanchayat in Tohana, BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikai said that the next farmers’ agitation will be on the KMP Expressway to block Delhi as a broad outline on this has been prepared for that.Meanwhile, Punjab Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian on Saturday sought Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s personal intervention urging that the Centre should hold a dialogue with the protesting farmers at the earliest to break the impasse.Pointing out the hunger strike of Dallewal, Khuddian said being a Union agriculture minister, Chouhan should take a personal interest in the matter.During a virtual meeting, Chouhan on Saturday reviewed various schemes with state agriculture ministers and sought their suggestions on ongoing programmes and budget allocation ahead of the Union Budget.Punjab’s Agriculture Minister Khuddian, who joined the meeting through video-conferencing, raised the matter related to the protesting farmers and some other issues.According to a Punjab government statement, Khuddian said, it is imperative that the Centre should take immediate action to address the grievances of farmers and save Dallewal’s life.He reiterated that the Punjab Government supports the farmers’ legitimate demands, it said.Asked about holding talks with the protesting farmers to end the logjam, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Wednesday that the government will act in accordance with the Supreme Court’s instructions on the ongoing farmers’ protest at the Punjab-Haryana border.Besides a legally guaranteed MSP, the farmers have been demanding a farm loan waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.(With inputs from PTI)
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