With agri ordinances

Muktsar: Farmers staged protests in the district and met SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal at his Badal village residence here today.

They staged a protest outside the residence of Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and handed over him a memorandum demanding that the Vidhan Sabha should pass a resolution against these ordinances.

Meanwhile, the farmers blocked the Kotkapura-Bathinda bypass road along the District Administrative Complex. The protesters said they would go to jail but continue their protest. The protest was underway in the evening and a large number of police personnel were present there.

Strict security arrangements were made at Badal village where the farmers had gone to stage a protest, but were allowed to go inside the SAD chief’s residence and hold a meeting. Sukhbir told the farmers that there was nothing wrong in the ordinances and farmers should not worry.

“Be it the issue of any threat, present or future, to the minimum support price regime with assured marketing of farmers’ crop or to the free power facility for farmers introduced by SAD-BJP government, I and my party will never allow the current dispensation to be disturbed nor allow anyone to rob the already beleaguered peasantry through new ideas. We are committed to farmers’ welfare on these and other issues,” said Sukhbir.

He added, “I have conveyed to the Centre that neither the MSP regime with assured marketing nor free power facility in the state can be allowed to be tinkered with under any pretext.”