1,600 farmers booked for blocking highways

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 6

The state police have booked about 1,600 farmers who had blocked highways in Phagwara, Dasuya and Mukerian in the past few days in protest against owners of private sugar mills over non-payment of their dues. About 100 farmers have been booked by name, while FIRs have been lodged against 1,500 unidentified ones.

An FIR has been lodged under non-bailable sections at Sadar police station, Phagwara, against farmer union leaders Manjit Singh Rai, Satnam Singh Sahni, Kirpal Singh Musapur, Gurjeet Singh Dalla, Sukhpal Singh Dafar, Santokh Singh Sandhu, Baljinder Raju, Surjit Singh and Baldev Singh, besides 1,000-1,200 other farmers.

They have been booked under Sections 188, 283, 109, 149 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 8-B of the National Highway Act. The FIR reads that all those who participated in the 26-hour-long dharna would be identified on the basis of videography done by the police.

In Dasuya, two FIRs have been registered against the farmers for holding two dharnas. In connection with the protest in front of a sugar mill that ended last evening, 25 farmers have been booked by name, besides 100 others. In another dharna wherein road and rail traffic was disrupted, 45 persons have been booked by name, besides 100 others.

In Mukerian, two FIRs had been lodged against 25 farmers by name, while 300 are yet to be identified. At Dasuya and Mukerian, the Pathankot-Jammu highway was blocked for five days. Satnam Sahni, a farmer who has been booked in Phagwara, said, “We knew this would happen. It really does not bother us as we had no option but to fight for our rights.”

Expressing solidarity with the farmers, Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa today tweeted, “I have come across a news report that hundreds of sugarcane farmers have been booked by the police for protesting and blocking the highway. I request the Punjab government to cancel all these cases. We shouldn’t punish our farmer brethren who were fighting for their rights.”

Zonal IG Naunihal Singh said, “The registration of FIRs for blocking highways has been done as per law. It is be up to the respective SSPs to make arrests.”

Meanwhile, most mill owners announced that they would start issuing tokens to cane farmers from tomorrow. Rana Inder Partap Singh, who owns a mill at Buttar Sevian, said, “The crushing may take four to five days.”

Regarding the pending payments to farmers, he said, “We owe about Rs 26 crore, of which Rs 12 crore is to be paid by the government. From our side, we will clear all dues by the month-end.”