Farmers to protest from Dec 30

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 15

Various farmer unions will hold three-day protest outside the DC office here from December 30. Members of the BKU Ekta Ugrahan on Sunday held a meeting at Chak Fateh Singhwala village to oversee the preparation for the protest to be held jointly with other farmer unions over pending demands.

While addressing the meeting, BKU Ekta Ugrahan state senior vice-president Jhanda Singh Jethuke and district president Shingara Singh Mann said as per the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directions, the state government did not provide any machinery to the farmers to manage paddy stubble and registered cases against the farmers who were left with no option but to burn the stubble in their fields. Apart from this, challans were imposed on them and combines of some farmers were seized.

They said during the protest they would demand cancellation of cases registered for stubble burning and challans imposed on the farmers, get the red entry marked in revenue records removed, get back the seized combine of farmers, Rs100 bonus to farmers who did not burn stubble. They also demanded that the state government should make required arrangements for managing stubble or provide compensation of Rs200 per quintal to the farmers for managing it.