Farmers adamant on blocking supply to city

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 4

On the fourth day of the 10-day-long protest, members of various farmer unions continued to keep vigil at roads leading from villages to Bathinda city to make sure that vegetables, fruit and milk didn’t reach the city.

The farmers and milkmen entered into heated arguments at various entry and exit points of the city.

The milkmen accused the farmers of chasing them on their vehicles and stopping them from supplying milk and threatening to spill it on roads.

Inder Singh, a milkman from Jodhpur Romana, said, “I was riding towards the city around 5.30 am when a group of farmers stopped me on the Bathinda-Dabwali road and asked me not to go to the city. When I argued, they threatened that they would spill the milk that I was ferrying on the road. I went back for some distance and waited for other milkmen. We managed to ride past the farmers in a group of seven only around 6 am.”

District president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur), Baldev Singh Sandoha, who was rounded up on Saturday by the police and later released, continued to make rounds of various nakas set up by the union members.

Packaged milk also ran out of stock at several provision stores as a result of panic buying by residents of the city.

Residents said milkmen had not been delivering milk on time and in case the protest by farmers continued, they would not be able to come to the city for the next few days.

Meanwhile, state president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Dakaunda), Buta Singh Burjgill, expressed his displeasure with the way “some unions were behaving” during the bandh.

He alleged that due to the bandh call, marginal farmers, milkmen and small businessmen had been affected the most.

“Small farmers and businessmen are suffering losses. The marginal farmers rely on making some extra money by sowing and selling vegetables. After June 15, the farmers will have to harvest the vegetable crop to prepare the fields for paddy transplantation, which is scheduled to begin on June 20. June 1 to June 15 is crucial time for them to earn money by selling vegetables,” he added.

He welcomed the decision taken by various farmer unions in Ludhiana to call off the bandh on June 6.