Farmers gherao BBMB Chief Engineer’s office
About 300 workers of the BKU (Rajewal), led by their president Balbir Singh Rajewal, staged a dharna outside the office of the Nangal Dam Chief Engineer on Monday. They raised slogans against the Centre and the BBMB for about an hour.
Rajewal said their protest was against the BBMB over giving extra water to Haryana from the Punjab quota. The issue would be taken up at the next meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM). He said the SKM would launch an agitation over the issue.
He said it was unfortunate that Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann criticised the farm unions for not supporting the fight against the BBMB. The CM was trying to divide farm unions over the issue, he alleged.
He said the farmers had been urging the state to oppose the Dam Safety Act as it was against the interests of Punjab. The present government did not oppose the release of extra water to Haryana for the past two years, but it was now playing politics on the issue.
Union activists did not join the AAP workers’ dharna at the dam. The vehicular traffic on the Nangal Dam bridge remained disrupted due to the protest by AAP workers. AAP MLA from Ropar Dinesh Chadda also participated in the dharna.
