Farmers Movement Archive

Cotton damage: Farmers gherao Punjab finance minister’s house at Badal

BATHINDA: Upset that the farmers who lost cotton crop to pink bollworm had neither compenstion nor the sight of any action against the suppliers of spurious seeds and pesticides, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) broke thorugh the security cordon of Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Thursday to lay siege to his village house at Badal. For the last three days, they had been protesting near the minister’s house for compensation. On Thursday, the farmers first asked the cops on duty at 2pm to remove the barricades but when the security team declined, the farmers ran through these obstacles. Sometime after their dharna outside the house, a team from the Muktsar district administration came over to them to seek a day when they’d like to sit with the state government for talks, because for now, most of its functionaries were on the way to Lakhimpur Kheri and they as well needed time to make any decision. Punjab had 3.04 lakh hectares under cotton this year, and 1.70 lakh hectares of this was in Bathinda and Mansa districts, where the pink bollworm had struck. The cotton that survived is fetching more than Rs 7,000 for each quintal, against a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,925 for 27.5-to-28.5-millimetre long staple. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) state secretary Shingara Singh Mann told TOI: “Appeals from the Muktsar district administration has moved us away from the minister’s house till Friday morning. If by then, we don’t have a concrete assurance on compensation, we will lay siege to the house again. On September 26 also, the farmers were assured compensation, there is no sign of which 11 days on. We also want the suppliers of spurious seeds and pesticides brought to book for causing this massive loss to the farmers.” Reports of the pink bollworm attack had brought Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to the Bathinda villages and ask the agriculture department to complete a girdawari (revenue assessment) for distribution of compensation to the affected farmers. A revenue department official said on the condition anonymity that this revenue assessment was in progress and the farmers will not have to wait long for compensation.

The Times of India

2021-10-08

Chandigarh