Sunam silo protester dies, farm union refuses to cremate body
Sangrur, April 12
A 52-year-old farmer participating in the Sunam protest died at Rajindra Hospital in Patiala on Thursday.
Under the banner of the BKU (Ugrahan), a large number of farmers are staging a dharna in front of a silo in Sunam. They are protesting against the private silo system while demanding government control over nine private silos and their use for the storage of foodgrains procured by the government food agencies.
The deceased, Karamjit Singh of Sangatpura village (Lehra), was at the protest site when his health deteriorated. He was taken to the Sangrur Civil Hospital and was later shifted to the Patiala hospital, where he died.
The body has been kept at the Rajindra hospital mortuary. The farmer union has demanded the state government to give a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family and government job for a family member. They have also asked the district administration to send a proposal to the state government regarding waiver of his loan. They said they won’t cremate the body until these demands are met.
Members and activists of the BKU (Ugrahan) started a ‘pucca morcha’ in front of the office of the Lehra SDM. They also held a dharna from 12 noon to 3 pm there. The union submitted a memorandum of demands to the Lehra administration. BKU (Ugrahan) Lehra block general secretary Bahadur Singh Bhutal said, “We hope that the government will initiate steps to resolve the issue soon so that the body can be cremated at the earliest.”
