Punjab farmers begin indefinite strike on Jalandhar-Phagwara highway over sugarcane rates

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, November 21

Demanding a hike in Sugarcane Assured Price from Rs 380 to Rs 450 per quintal, the members of Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Tuesday began an indefinite dharna on the Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch of National Highway near Dhanowali village here.

Tents have been pitched by thousands of farmers who have assembled here. All vehicular movement between Jalandhar and Ludhiana and Jalandhar and Nawanshahr near the stretch has been halted.

Hundreds of commuters who were travelling on buses on either side of the dharna had to walk over 4 km to catch the buses. Only the service lanes along the highway were partly available for transit.

Leading the protest, Manjit Rai of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Doaba) said they had repeatedly made a request for enhancement of the SAP, but to no avail.

“We had postponed the dharna planned for November 8, and on government assurance had cancelled it. We are told that a meeting has been called by the Cane Commissioner on Wednesday but we have not been invited. We are being told that a notification for price hike will be released after the meeting but our dharna is indefinite and will go on till we get the price we are demanding.”

He said the BKU (Ugrahan) and BKU (Rajewal) had also joined the protest. Rai said a meeting of all farmer unions would be held around 3 pm on Tuesday to decide if the rail traffic is also to be blocked.