Farmers to go ahead with 3-day dharna, docs flag concern

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 24

Even as the Health Department is ensuring steps to check the “spread of Covid in rural Punjab”, the three-day dharna by farmers under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugarahan) in the CM’s hometown is likely to attract thousands. Experts suggest it could be a “superspreader”.

Experts warn that at this crucial time when the number of positive cases just started to decline, any “large gathering could turn fatal”. But the farmer unions are adamant with thousands camping in Patiala.

Sources in the farmer unions suggest the members had already mobilised cadres in villages in the Malwa belt to show numbers. “Announcements have already been made and ration and other items have been loaded in vehicles to be moved to Patiala on May 27, a day before the dharna,” they said.

Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Satinder Singh said: “The farmers should defer their protest as the second wave is not over yet. There is a huge risk of the spread of virus due to such large gatherings.”

He said they could hold testing and vaccination camps at the protest site, if allowed by farmers.

On Sunday, CM Capt Amarinder Singh had urged farmer unions not to act irresponsibly, considering the total support the government had extended all these months to them on farm laws. BKU general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said: “The CM should instead answer where is the Rs 1,000 crore allocated to the Health Department and why all available ventilators in Punjab are still non-functional. He should answer why out of 2,010 Level-3 beds, only 550 are in government facilities. Government hospitals have one bed per 55,455 persons and people are dying, especially in villages.”

He said the dharna would be held to expose the government on hundreds of unfilled vacancies in health sector and how the poor were being fleeced in the name of treatment. DC Kumar Amit said neither permission had been sought for the dharna, nor any such permission could be given. “We are trying to hold meetings with the farmers, urging them not to hold the protest when the virus spread is at its peak,” he said.