Week after comrade’s death, farmers block traffic in Kotkapura

Tribune News Service

Kotkapura, October 15

The death of a person while participating in a protest dharna of farmers at Kotkapura on October 8 has caught the civil and police administration in a difficult situation.

Blaming the Market Committee, Kotkapura, for the death of 56-year-old Balwinder Singh Romana, farmers on Monday blocked all vehicular traffic at Kotkapura by sitting on a protest dharna at the main chowk of the town.

The protesting farmers were demanding from the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the deceased farmer’s family and government job of his kin.

The protesters alleged that as the Market Committee authorities did not provide them drinking water and there were no adequate arrangements for the farmers to sit on the protest dharna on October 8, it caused the death of Romana.

However, the authorities said the death of Balwinder Singh Romana was natural as he had suffered a cardiac arrest while participating in the dharna.

He was immediately rushed to the Kotkapura Civil Hospital where doctors referred him to Bathinda, but he died on the way, said a senior functionary in the Market Committee.

“The farmers are just capitalising on this natural death to drag on their unnecessary agitation,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.

While blocking all vehicular traffic, which was passing through Kotkapura town on Monday, the farmers alleged that since October 8, they had been sitting on a peaceful protest in front of the SDM’s office but the authorities did not pay any heed to their peaceful protest and so they were forced to block the traffic by staging a protest at the main chowk of the town.

The protesting farmers had been demanding complete wavier of farm loans and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report.