Farmers refuse to cremate suicide victim’s body in Jaito

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Jaito, December 8

A day after a farmer allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide at the farmers’ protest at Jaito town of Faridkot, the protestors intensified their stir by placing the body of the deceased in front of the office of Jaito SDM on Sunday evening. Jagseer Singh (52), a resident of Kotra Korianwala village of Bathinda, had allegedly committed suicide by consuming a pesticide at the dharna site on Saturday.

During the day, the district administration and the police tried to persuade the protesting farmers and family members of the deceased to allow a post-mortem examination of the body. However, the protesters, who assembled under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur), said they would not allow the postmortem and cremation of the deceased till their demand of cancellation of all FIRs, removal of the ‘red enteries’ from their revenue record for burning stubble and waiving off of fines imposed by the Punjab Pollution Control Board were accepted. They demanded Rs1 crore compensation and a government job to a member of the deceased.

Earlier, shifting their about month-long dharna from the Tehsil Complex to the Jaito Civil Hospital, where the body of deceased farmer Jagseer Singh was kept, the BKU leaders said they would block the Bathinda-Amritsar national highway by placing the body on the road, if their demands were not accepted by the state government within the next 24 hours.

However around 6.30 pm, the farmers placed the body in front of the SDM office and shifted their dhrana site to there. While many senior district-level civil and police officials met the protesters and tried to prevail upon them on Sunday, the farmers remained adamant on their stand.

They said the district administration offered Rs3 lakh as financial assistance for deceased’s family, which they rejected, said Jagjit Singh Dallewal, state president of the union. He accused the district administration of making attempt to sabotage their protest by snapping electricity and power supply at the Tehsil Complex. We have now shifted our dharna to the SDM office, said Dallewal.