Bathinda: Protesting at toll plazas and residences/offices of AAP and BJP leaders for 16 days over slow lifting of paddy, shortage of fertilisers for sowing wheat and action being taken against farmers for burning crop residue, farm organisation BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) on Saturday decided to intensify this agitation at all four assembly constituencies where byelections will take place on Nov 13.
The sit-ins at the residences/offices of AAP and the BJP candidates will be started from Monday in Barnala, Gidderbaha, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak seats. The decision in this regard was taken at a state-level meeting of the farmer organisation held at Cheema village near Barnala on Saturday.
At present, the protests are going on at 52 places — 26 toll plazas and 26 residences/offices of AAP and BJP leaders. The protests at toll plazas will continue unabated. However, the protests at the 26 residences/offices of AAP and BJP leaders, will now be narrowed down to eight places — four candidates each of AAP and BJP, said Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan).
Both the central govt, led by the BJP, and the state govt, led by the AAP, are equally responsible for the harassment of farmers in grain markets, he added.
The protests in Barnala will be held at the residences of BJP candidate Kewal Singh Dhillon and AAP candidate Harinder Singh Dhaliwal; at Gidderbaha, protests will be held outside the residences of BJP candidate Manpreet Badal and AAP candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon; while at Chabbewal, the protests will be held at the residences of AAP candidate Ishaan Chabbewal and BJP candidate Sohan Singh Thandal, said the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) leaders.
In Dera Baba Nanak constituency, the protests will be held outside the residences of BJP candidate Ravi Karan Singh Kahlon and AAP candidate Gurdeep Singh Randhawa, they added. The farmers have been facing hardships for more than a month now as procurement is not up to mark and lifting is slow due to which there are space issues, said Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan).
The space to store paddy is less as crops of previous season have not been moved from Punjab. The farmers are also facing hardships in getting the DAP for wheat sowing and penal action is being taken against them for burning stubble in their fields, he said.
Sukhdev Singh said the farmers were forced to burn paddy stubble in absence of CRM machinery and tractors for small and marginal farmers. The protests will continue till the situation streamlines, he added.