Farmers Movement Archive

Karnal canecharge: Farmers block roads, want SDM out

Ludhiana: Members of farmers’ unions staged protests at various places in Ludhiana on Sunday between noon and 2pm as per the programme of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha. They were protesting lathicharge on farmers in Karnal on Saturday.General secretary of Inqualabi Kendra, Punjab, Kanwaljit Khanna, whose group has been supporting farmers’ agitation, said the protests were held at many places in Ludhiana, Khanna, Samrala, Kohara, toll plazas of Lehal, Rakba and Ladowal, Chowkiman, Bassiyan, Kamalpura, Bondri and Raikot. He claimed that in about a dozen villages, farmers burnt the effigies of Haryana CM ML Khattar.Khanna said they want the services of Karnal SDM to be terminated, a judicial inquiry ordered into the “brutal lathicharge by the police” and a case registered against the culprits. He added that in Jagraon, they blocked the Ludhiana-Ferozepur Road for two hours and women and children had also joined the agitation. Addressing the protesters in Jagraon, Manjit Singh Dhanes, senior vice-president of Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Dakonda, said the lathicharge and repression on the orders of Karnal SDM would cost the Modi and the Khattar government dear. Chamkaur Singh from a village in Jagraon said there were long queues of vehicles on the road near Jagraon, but protesters allowed ambulances to pass through the blockade. In Ludhiana, members of BKU Ekta Ugrahan staged a sit-in in front of a mall on Ferozepur Road and raised slogans against the BJP government. Union’s member Gurpreet Singh said they blocked the Ludhiana-Jagraon Road in protest against the Khattar government’s action against farmers in Karnal and “our struggle will continue till the government scraps the black farm laws.” BKU Ekta Sidhupur members also blocked the Ludhiana to Chandigarh and Ropar roads near Neelon. Its acting block president asked the farmers to intensify the struggle. Police officials said they had to divert traffic so that commuters did not face problems. It took some time for the traffic to normalise after the farmers lifted the blockade. A commuter said, “I had to go to Chandigarh, but since farmers had blocked the road near Neelon, I got stuck in a jam and then had to take a longer route to reach my destination.”

The Times of India

2021-08-30

Ludhiana