Bathinda: Revoke red entries in land records, say farm unions

Bathinda, November 20

Farmers under the banner of several farm unions parked their stubble-laden tractor-trailers outside the Bathinda DC office demanding proper management of crop residue.

The protesters demanded cancellation of FIRs registered against farmers burning stubble and revocation of red entries made in their revenue records.

Farm leaders said the state government had claimed to have proper arrangements in place to manage straw this kharif season.

However, farmers were not able to get balers and other equipment to for in situ and ex situ management of crop residue, said Baldev Singh Sandoha of the BKU (Sidhupur), adding that peasants had no option, but to set stubble on fire to sow wheat before November 20.

Instead of understanding the helplessness of farmers, the district administration had been registering cases against us, said Resham Singh Yatri of the BKU (Revolutionary).

Later, farm leaders, including Jaswinder Kaur of Lok Morcha, Balwant Singh of the BKU (Khosa) and Gurpal Singh of the BKU (Mansa) submitted a memorandum to ADC Poonam Singh.