Over 100 farmers block NH in anger against government policies

LUDHIANA: As International Yoga Day was being celebrated across the country on Wednesday, more than a hundred farmers from various parts of the state gathered under the banner of

Bharatiya Kisan Union

(BKU) Lakhowal at around 11.45am on Wednesday to do yoga on the Delhi-Ludhiana national highway near

Manjhi Sahib

(close to Khanna) to voice their anger against the central government. The farmers also took off their shirts as a mark of protest against the anti-farmer policies of the government.

They raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state government, and blocked the national highway, staging a protest sit-in for around an hour before dispersing. “On the one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is encouraging people to perform yoga, but on other hand, farmers who do yoga throughout the year and produce foodgrains for the country are being killed. We condemn such incidents in Madhya Pradesh, where six farmers were killed, and demand a CBI probe into the matter. Also, our demand is that debts of all farmers should be waived off by the government,” said Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of BKU (Lakhowal). “We also demand that the

Swaminathan Committee

report on minimum support price (MSP) for crops be implemented immediately.”

BKU leaders demanded that the government take care of stray cattle and dogs, lift the ban on sale of cattle, and clear the payment of Rs122 crore to farmers for sugarcane. Speaking on the occasion, Shamsher Singh, senior vice-president of BKU (Lakhowal) also demanded that the government get crop insurance done for farmers. Many farmers complained that the government had only waived off debts of farmers who procured loans from cooperative societies, but not from private banks and money lenders.

Says Nagender Singh (40) of Harpalon village, who owns three acres of land: “I had got loans from a private bank at around 6% interest, but even as the state government has announced the waiver of farmers’ debts, I’ve heard it is only of those farmers who got loans from cooperative societies, who constitute just around 20% of the farmers. They should waive off the debts of all small farmers.”

While farmers blocked the highway, police officials diverted traffic to the service lanes on either side of the national highway to avoid jams. A heavy contingent of policemen was deployed at the

protest site.