Farmers in no mood to relent

Jaswant Shetra
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, February 21

Members of various farmer unions protesting against the government for the past four days blocked traffic on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway on Thursday.

Activists of the unions staged a dharna on the highway and blocked traffic for around three hours.

Long lanes of vehicles stuck in the traffic jam were seen during the protest.

The police had tough time in regulating the traffic from alternative routes during the protest.

“Usually, it takes 15 minutes to reach Ludhiana from Mullanpur, but today, it took around two hours due to traffic blockade by the farmers. I remained stuck in the traffic jam for around one and a half hour,” said Smardeep, a taxi driver who was ferrying a passenger to Ludhiana.

Today was the fourth consecutive day of the protest by the farmers against the alleged failure of the government in fulfilling their demands.

Hundreds of farmers from various parts of the state took part in the protest jointly held by seven farmers organisations.

The activists assembled near Ayali Chowk in the morning and then started a march towards Punjab National Bank to gherao the bank.

Huge police force was deployed and the police prevented the farmers from reaching near the bank, following which the farmers sat on a dharna on the highway and blocked the traffic.

The protesting farmers launched the dharna around 1 pm and continued it till 4 pm. The activists raised slogans against the government for failing to provide relief to them.

“We have been holding protests for the past three days amid rain, but neither any politician nor any official from the district administration came to listen to our grievances. Therefore, we decided to block traffic on the highway,” said Jatinder Singh Cheena, a farmer union activist.

Cheena said the government should wave off the whole debt of the farmers. “At the time of sanctioning loans, the banks take blank cheques from farmers and when the latter fail to clear debt, the banks file cases against them using those cheques. The government should cancel all such court cases,” said Cheena.

Manjit Singh Dhaner of the Bhartiya Kissan Union (Dakaunda) said successive governments have failed to resolve the issues of farmers.

“The political parties make tall promises to the farmers before the elections, but after winning no government shows interest towards solving their problems. We have seen governments of different political parties and all of them only work for the interests of industrialists. It is due to the indifferent attitude of the government that the farmers have been driven to committing suicides,” said Dhaner.

The activists said they would continue their protest until their demands are not met. “More farmers would join the protest in the next few days. We would again stage a dharna on Friday and block traffic if need arises,” said Saudagar Singh, another activist.