Farmer unions demand paddy sowing from June 1

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 25

Members of seven farmer unions staged a protest in front of the District Administration Complex and submitted a memorandum of demands to the Deputy Commissioner here on Monday. The union members demanded that the state government must give permission to start paddy sowing from June 1 onwards.

The members representing different farm unions raised slogans against the state government in front of the administrative complex. Later, when tehsildar reached the protest venue to take the memorandum of demands, the farmers denied saying that they would submit the same to the Deputy Commissioner only. The farmers then resorted to sloganeering against the district administration and the state government. Later, representatives of the farm unions visited the Deputy Commissioner’s office and submitted the memorandum.

Representatives from the Krantikari Kisan Union, the Azad Kisan Sangharsh Committee, the BKU Ugrahan, the BKU (Krantikari), the Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Pannu) and the Kirti Kisan Union (KKU) participated in the protest.

BKU Ugrahan district president Singara Singh Mann said, “The state government must lift the ban regarding paddy sowing only after June 20 and rather allow farmers to sow paddy from June 1 onwards. Moreover, to ensure quality crop production, the state government must make proper arrangements of water supply via canal and must ensure an uninterrupted power supply for 16 hours in a day. With a ban in place on paddy sowing, when all of a sudden all farmers start sowing, the consumption of power increases manifold, resulting in increased load on power grids/transformers.”

Mann added, “When the paddy sowing is delayed, it not only affects the crop production, but also causes moisture in it, resulting in increased pollution levels during stubble burning. If the state government did not lift the ban on paddy sowing, they will intensify their stir in the future.”