On duty to check farm fires, officials held 'hostage' in Fatehgarh Sahib

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, October 31

A group of farmers, led by BKU activists, held government officials ‘hostage’ at Roorkee village, where they had gone to inspect stubble-burning incidents today.

The district administration rushed a police team to the help of officials who were from the Revenue and Irrigation Departments. The farmers made the officials wait till the senior officials came to listen to their grievances.

The farmers slammed the alleged double standards of the government. They claimed on one hand, the CM and Agriculture Minister had announced that no action would be taken against the farmers for burning stubble, and on the other hand, teams were being sent to take action.

Harnek Singh Bhalmajra, district president, Krantikari Kisan Union, said due to the wrong policies of the government, they were being forced to burn stubble.

He said the government had failed to provide machinery as well as compensation to manage stubble.

The farmers said the government must provide financial assistance to them to manage stubble otherwise they won’t allow any official to enter their fields. They said the government was imposing fines, making ‘red entries’ in revenue records and “harassing” them.

Ajay Pandey, nodal officer, and Mandeep Singh, patwari, who were members of the team said that they got a message from senior officials to visit the fields of farmer Sadhu Singh at Roorkee village as satellite images had shown fire in the field.

The officials said when they reached the field, a large number of farmers gheraoed them and forced them to not to report the incident.

After lengthy negotiations, the officials were released. Raj Kumar, SHO, Mullepur police station, said if the police get any complaint from the officials, then action would be initiated against the farmers.

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#Agriculture #Environment #Farm Fires #Fatehgarh Sahib #Pollution