Punjab farmers want demands met, to hold statewide protests on Republic Day

Amritsar, January 24

Farmers, under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Saghransh Committee (KMSC), have announced that statewide protests will be held on Republic Day, in addition to a three-hour ‘rail chakka jam’ on January 29 over their demands.

These gatherings would be led by KMSC, Punjab, state leader Gurbachan Singh Chabba and district president Ranjit Singh Klarbala.

Preparations are being carried out, after taking people into confidence, at the village-level in which large gatherings will be held mainly on January 26 dedicated to the ‘Delhi Fateh Day’ and the those who had died during the Delhi agitation.

On January 29, train services will be disrupted for three hours between 1 pm and 3 pm across the state.

KMSC general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said that under Bharat Mala programme, the Centre and the state government have been making attempts to acquire farm land without providing adequate compensation to pave way for the Jammu-Katra Expressway and Amritsar-Una Highway projects.

Another KMSC leader said the existing village level dispensaries were being made defunct in the name of opening Aam Aadmi Clinics in Punjab on the lines of Delhi’s Mohalla Clinics. “Rather, the need of the hour was to upgrade the infrastructure of the 1,186 dispensaries, appoint doctors and allied staff against vacant posts, to provide better health services. But the state government has been wasting the public money only for political gains in the name of Aam Aadmi Clinics,” he said. 

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