Over 200 protesting farmers booked

Our Correspondent
Dasuya (Hoshiarpur), December 4

Sugarcane farmers’ dharna and road blockade continued today also. After a meeting with owners of sugar mills and the government fail to yield any result on Monday evening, the farmers continued their protests. Some of them have been booked by the police.

But the action has failed to break the morale of the protesting farmers. Farmer leader Jangvir Singh during the interaction with the media said tougher the action government takes against them, stronger their struggle would be.

He said now, farmers would call off the dharna and blockade only after the fulfillment of their demands.

While expressing anger over the registration of an FIR against the farmers protesting in front of Randhawa Sugar Mill, farmer leaders said if the government crackdown on them increases, they would intensify the stir.

They said no matter what the mill management, the administration and the government do to stop them, their enthusiasm could not be curbed. Even if the government resorts to bullets, they are ready to face them.

Vice-president of AB Sugar Mill Des Raj said the meeting of mill owners would again be held with the Chief Minister. There was a possibility of it being successful today. In this regard, SDM Harcharan Singh said the government was continuing talks to solve the issue. It is expected to be resolved soon.

On the complaint of ASI Raghbir Singh of Dasuya police station, a case has been registered against the protesting farmer leaders by the police.

He in the complaint has said he was present on GT Road in Randhawa with his colleagues. He said Jangbeer Singh Chauhan, a resident of Rasulpur, Ranjit Singh Bajwa, Jhujar Singh Kesopura, Mohan Singh Happy and Kulwinder Singh Kalyanpur along with around 195 unidentified farmers were protesting without any permission from the authorities concerned in front of the sugar mill near Randhawa Chowk.They stopped the traffic on GT Road due to which the public had to face inconvenience. The case has been registered against them due to this reason. The case has been filed under Section 8-B of the National Highways Act, 1956.

Mukerian: The Kisan Sangharsh Committee and other farmers’ committees continued their blockade on the national highway in front of the sugar mill in Mukerian for the fourth day today. A police case has been registered by the Mukerian police against 32 of the farmer leaders on the charges of obstructing the traffic. A case was also registered by the Tanda police against them for obstructing the traffic by holding a dharna on the bridge of the Beas on the Amritsar road.

They staged dharna by blocking the road and indulged in sloganeering against the mill management and the government. They warned that if the issue was not resolved soon, then other farmers would join their protest across the state.

The protesters said the state government and private mills were not deliberately solving the issue and causing economic exploitation of the farmers under a conspiracy. They warned that if solution was provided soon, roads would be blocked across the state. On the other hand, people are facing huge difficulties due to the road blockades on national highways by the farmers. Due to a heavy traffic jam in the city, commuters travelling to their destinations were stuck for many hours.