Farmers Movement Archive

CM says 112 Punjab farmers died during protests, farm bodies seek relief

BATHINDA: While Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday claimed that 112 farmers belonging to Punjab died during the protests against the farm laws enacted by the Centre, farm organisations claimed that in all, 302 farmers from various states died in the protests since November 24, 2020 and most of them were from Punjab. According to data compiled by Kisan Ekta Morcha, the official social media account of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, 302 farmers died during the protests since November 24. Of these, 12 farmers died before November 24 but after the protests started in Punjab on October 1. The data has been compiled in a blog named, “”Human cost of farmer protest.” Kisan morcha members also announced financial compensation to all bereaved families of farmers. So far, compensation has been provided by various farmer organisations in some of the cases. Kisan morcha members claimed that of the total of 302 fatalities, more than 200 were from Punjab. However, state-wise data is yet to be compiled. While Punjab government also has a policy of providing financial compensation of Rs 3 lakh to bereaved families, comprehensive data on how many bereaved families were given compensation could not be sourced. On Thursday, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh pegged the number of deceased farmers at 112 while addressing a press conference on completion of four years of his government. The farmers died due to cold, ailments (mainly cardiac arrest), accidents or by suicide. The morcha calls all those who died as Shaheed (martyr). The Kisan Ekta Morcha, another independent social media account of Tractor to Twitter, which is following the farmers’ suicides and farmer organisation BKU Ekta Ugrahan has launched a campaign named ‘Know your Shaheed’ wherein details of the deceased farmers with photos are being posted on social media. “We have collected data from various sources, including newspaper reports, farm organisations or individual farmers. As per data collected by us, so far, 302 farmers have died due to multiple reasons during the protests either at borders of Delhi or while returning to their villages or after a few days of reaching their places,” said Sanyukt Kisan Morcha IT cell member Harinder Happy. “Over 300 farmers died during the protests but the central government never cared to shed a tear. It is the Kisan Morcha leadership, which once, during one of the meetings with central ministers, forced ministers to pay respects to the departed souls by holding two-minute maun (silence). The kisan morcha has announced to provide financial assistance to bereaved families and it will be provided,” said morcha leader Darshan Pal. BKU Ekta Ugrahan president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said, “While we appreciate Punjab government’s concern for the plight of farmers, we want it to count the farmers who died in the protests as the figure from Punjab is much more than 112 and compensation should be provided in all cases.” Kisan Morcha stated that so far, no one has been found to be Covid positive at the protest sites. The postmortem and viscera report of the 302 persons who died did not indicate Covid-19.

The Times of India

2021-03-19

Chandigarh