Farmers honk to show resentment

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 8

To express their resentment against the persistent rise in prices of petrol, diesel and LPG, farmers parked diesel and petrol-run vehicles on the highways today, stacked LPG cylinders and then sounded horns of the vehicles for eight minutes – from 12.00 noon to 12.08 PM. The protest was held at Kohara Chowk on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh Road, Ladhowal toll plaza on GT Road and near MBD Mall on Ferozepur Road here.

Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of BKU-Lakhowal, who led the protest at Kohara Chowk, said it was a symbolic protest by farmers and a wakeup call for the government to curb the general price rise and bring down the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG in particular. The income of farmers, workers, employees and common people had shrunk during the pandemic and to add to their misery,the government controlled oil companies had been persistently jacking up prices of petroleum products.

Addressing the protesting farmers at Ladhowal toll plaza, BKU-Kadian president Harmeet Singh Kadian lambasted both the Centre and state governments for the rising oil prices. He said the hike in prices of diesel and petrol was a double whammy for the poor because firstly they paid directly for purchasing fuel at higher rates and then also bore the brunt of inflation due to increased cost of transportation of goods.

Addressing activists of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), district general secretary Sudagar Singh Ghudani sounded a warning to the Modi-led NDA Government that the ruling dispensation would have to pay a heavy price for its anti-people and anti-farmer policies and also for giving a free hand to oil marketing companies to loot the people.