Upset over lack of irrigation water, Abohar farm activists gherao XEN's office

Abohar, August 19

Farmers of Bhangala village, who have been staging a dharna in the canal colony here for the past four days, today took out a march in the city and burnt an effigy of the state government outside the bus stand.

The protest has got the support of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan). Leading the protest march on Friday, Jagtar Singh Burjmuhar said many families of farmers in Bhangala had not been provided canal water for irrigation and this had turned fertile agricultural land into a desert.

The protesting farmers surrounded the office of the Executive Engineer (XEN) of the Irrigation Department and raised slogans against the government. The protesters said they held a series of meetings with senior officials and apprised them of the problems they had been facing due to non-availability of water for irrigation but no concrete result came out.

The union’s women wing district president, Rajandeep Kaur Mammukhera, said the presence of women at the “pakka morcha” would be increased in the coming days if the problem was not resolved.

XEN Sukhjit Singh Randhawa said, “This is a two-year-old problem. Some families in the village have not been getting canal water as their dispute with another (rival) faction is pending in the High Court. Efforts will be made in consultation with MLA Amandeep Singh Goldy Musafir to bring the warring factions to an amicable settlement.”