Villages in three dists resolve to dispatch more protesters

Tribune News Service

Bathinda/Patiala, January 30

In a bid to revive the protest against the central farm laws, many village panchayats in Bathinda, Mansa and Patiala districts held meetings to mobilise support and send villagers to join Delhi protesters.

Exhorting the youth to remain peaceful, the panchayats asked everyone to strengthen the protest and go to Delhi as it was about saving their land. A panchayat at Kotbhaktu village in Bathinda has taken a decision that any family that doesn’t send a member to the protest site would face social boycott.

Around a dozen villages in Bathinda and Mansa today passed a unanimous resolution that one member per family will go to the protest on rotation, else it will have to pay a fine. Panchayats in Phul, Phooli, Kotbhaktu, Kararwala, Ghuman Kalan, Jattana Khurd, Khiala and others also passed a resolution in support of the agitation.

Sukhwinder Kaur, sarpanch, Kotbhaktu village, said: “Today we organised a meeting of villagers. It has been decided to send one member per house to the protest site on rotation. Anyone not adhering to the decision will be fined Rs 300 daily. If even after one week, the family doesn’t send any member, it would face social boycott.” Similar resolution was passed by panchayats of Wazidpur, Saini Majra and Ghumana villages in Patiala.

PM’s effigy burnt

Farmers belonging to the BKU (Ugrahan) burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and corporates, and raised slogans against the Union Government in Mansa district. They said they would keep sending groups of farmers to Delhi borders.

Flag march in Fazilka

Farmers took out a motorcycle ‘flag march’, under the banner of BKU (Ekta-Sidhupura), in several villages to exhort people to reach Delhi borders. BKU activists appealed to the farmers to boycott BJP leaders in Fazilka villages.