Farmers Movement Archive

Protesting farmers lay siege to Ludhiana Mini-Secretariat

Ludhiana, December 31Charging the state government with dilly-dallying over pending demands of farmers, activists of the Bharti Kisan Union-Ekta Ugrahan today laid a siege to the Mini Secretariat where offices of the Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner of Police and other senior district officials are located.The protesting farmers alleged that the Punjab Government is not implementing even those pending demands which had been accepted in principle.Irate farmers had a scuffle with heavy police force deployed at the main gate and in front of the DC office to stop them from entering the administrative complex and after a high drama the entry gate of the DC office was locked from inside. The determined protesters, however, said they would continue the gherao of the complex till their memorandum, addressed to the Punjab Government, is taken by one of the district officials.With entry gate of complex having been locked and police personnel deployed in large numbers, other visitors to Mini-Secretariat had to suffer and some of them even went to the extent of exchanging heated words over the protest.District secretary, BKU, Sudagar Singh Ghhudani said they had been taking up the issues of compensation to families of farmers who lost their lives during more than a year’s protest, financial assistance to kin of those debt-ridden farmers who had committed suicides and waiver of condition of five acre upper limit of land for payment of compensation against crop losses due to natural calamities.“However, our persistent voices have failed to evoke any response and we are left with no other choice than to intensify our protest,” said the BKU leader.Ghudani and other speakers charged the Congress government in Punjab with paying just a lip service to the cause of farmers but practically doing nothing to improve their lot in terms of providing cheap inputs, including diesel, seeds, farm chemicals and fertilisers, remission of old debts, building pressure upon the Centre to put a legal mechanism in place for MSP of all crops and on the top of it all promotion of crop diversification to rid the farmers of traditional crop rotation which is no longer financially viable.Among others, the rally was addressed by district president of the Bharti Kisan Union-Ekta Ugrahan Charan Singh Nurpura, Kuldeep Singh Grewal, Lakhvir Singh Nanowal, Balwant Singh Ghudani, Paramjit Singh Ghaloti, Hakam Singh Jargari, Jagmeet Singh Kalar, Rajinder Singh Sihar, Gurpreet Singh Noorpura, Yuvraj Singh Ghudani, Tirath Singh, Sukhpreet Singh Majri, Harjit Kaur, Malkit Singh and Iqbal Singh.

The Tribune

2022-01-01