Won’t let petrol stations owned by business groups to function, say farmers

Tribune News Service

Batala, October 17

Farmers unions today made it clear that they would not allow petrol pumps owned by business groups to function till the Union Government withdrew the farm Acts.

BKU (Rajewal) spokesman Kashmir Singh said: “All factions have jointly decided that these outlets won’t be allowed to sell oil because we fear the corporates will capture every inch of agriculture land in Punjab in the future. First, they will form a cartel which will decide what price to give to which farmer and later they will take our lands on lease,” said Kashmir Singh.

Today morning, more than 200 farmers laid siege to a petrol pump owned by a business group on the Batala-Jalandhar road.

A leader said while during the daytime at least 50 protesters would ensure petrol pumps didn’t run, at night groups of 10 to 15 farmers would put up blockades in front of these pumps.

Meanwhile, SSP Rachpal Singh said policemen in civvies had been deployed to ensure no untoward incident took place.