Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: Hundreds of farmers have gathered near Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur demanding compensation for their damaged crops and for the cattle that died due to lumpy skin disease, quashing of mining law and enhancement in the land acquisition relief. As they plan a major protest on Thursday, they reel out the promises that Delhi CM and the ruling AAP’s national convenor Arwind Kejriwal have been making to the people of poll-bound Gujarat.
“We have given the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers on five crops in Punjab, besides compensation for the crop damage. We’ll also ensure adequate electricity supply to the farmers,” says an angry Punjab villager quoting Kejriwal as saying in Gujarat. “We have none of all this at all,” he said.
The protesting farmers led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta-Ugrahan – the largest farmer union of the state – have taken turns to sit on a dharna on the Patiala-Bathinda highway and have parked their modified tractor-trolleys along the 3-km stretch of the highway. Only a part of the road is left for traffic movement. These trolleys are converted into makeshift homes.
The farmers are carrying the ration, vegetables, lentils, utensils, gas cylinders and other items and have set up makeshift kitchens. A 400-metre stretch of the road has been completely blocked where a platform has been set up.
While farmers living in nearby villages join the protest daily in the morning and return in the evening, those coming from far-off places stay inside the makeshift camps and return after a week. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan said the financial condition of farmers is worsening as successive governments at the Centre and state have failed to help them.
“The state government should release compensation for the damaged crops and for the cattle that died due to lumpy skin disease. The government should also shutter own a liquor factory at Mansurwal village near Zira for causing pollution and take action to prevent pollution of various canals by industrialists of Ludhiana,” said Ugrahan.
The other demands include the cancellation of cases against farmers for burning the crop residue and Rs 200 per quintal for the management of stubble without burning it. “We also demand to scrap of the mining law and enhancement in land acquisition relief,’’ says Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, another BKU (Ugrahan) leader.
CHANDIGARH: Hundreds of farmers have gathered near Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur demanding compensation for their damaged crops and for the cattle that died due to lumpy skin disease, quashing of mining law and enhancement in the land acquisition relief. As they plan a major protest on Thursday, they reel out the promises that Delhi CM and the ruling AAP’s national convenor Arwind Kejriwal have been making to the people of poll-bound Gujarat.
“We have given the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers on five crops in Punjab, besides compensation for the crop damage. We’ll also ensure adequate electricity supply to the farmers,” says an angry Punjab villager quoting Kejriwal as saying in Gujarat. “We have none of all this at all,” he said.
The protesting farmers led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta-Ugrahan – the largest farmer union of the state – have taken turns to sit on a dharna on the Patiala-Bathinda highway and have parked their modified tractor-trolleys along the 3-km stretch of the highway. Only a part of the road is left for traffic movement. These trolleys are converted into makeshift homes.
The farmers are carrying the ration, vegetables, lentils, utensils, gas cylinders and other items and have set up makeshift kitchens. A 400-metre stretch of the road has been completely blocked where a platform has been set up.
While farmers living in nearby villages join the protest daily in the morning and return in the evening, those coming from far-off places stay inside the makeshift camps and return after a week. BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan said the financial condition of farmers is worsening as successive governments at the Centre and state have failed to help them.
“The state government should release compensation for the damaged crops and for the cattle that died due to lumpy skin disease. The government should also shutter own a liquor factory at Mansurwal village near Zira for causing pollution and take action to prevent pollution of various canals by industrialists of Ludhiana,” said Ugrahan.
The other demands include the cancellation of cases against farmers for burning the crop residue and Rs 200 per quintal for the management of stubble without burning it. “We also demand to scrap of the mining law and enhancement in land acquisition relief,’’ says Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, another BKU (Ugrahan) leader.
