Not allowed to go to fields, farmers protest

Ferozepur, April 1

Border farmers belonging to the DT Mall area here are up in arms over the alleged denial of permission to go beyond the fence gates to tend to their fields along the Indo-Pakistan border.

Border Farmers Sangharsh Committee president Jagdev Singh said the fence gates in the DT Mall Enclave had been closed due to the lockdown. The farmers have not been permitted to go to their fields due to which their crops are suffering, he said.

He said farmers were ready to remove their clothes during checking as BSF sleuths were apprehensive about frisking them.

Another farmer, Mohinder Singh of Bhambha Hazi village, said they only wanted to spray insecticide to protect their crops from yellow rust and aphids, besides irrigating their fields.

Sources said after much pleading, the BSF agreed to allow 10 persons each day to go to their fields. However, farmers said this arrangement didn’t suit them. — OC