Published Date:
10-Dec-2011
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shipping-exchangeBraving inclement weather and winter rainfall, farmers persisted with the blockade, while farmer families from nearby villages continued to supply them with tea and food langar -- a system being worked out for the past four days.


Mindful of impending police action as indicated by deployment of cops since Thursday night, the farm leaders said, "The government may use force on Friday night to forcibly lift us, but we will not move till the government agrees to our demand of waiving dues upto 200 units of power per month to farm labourers and poor, and give Rs 5 lakh compensation to families of farm suicide victims."


Meanwhile, the protest has badly affected rail movement on Bathinda-Ambala section and vehicular traffic on Amritsar-Jalandhar highway. A dozen trains remained suspended on Friday, while harried commuters looked for alternate routes to cross the strategic Beas bridge which links Amritsar with rest of the country on NH 1.


"On Thursday evening, the state government had opened talks with farmers through Amritsar rural SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, but till Friday evening, we were still awaiting government response to our demands", said farm organization BKU Ugrahan general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri. More police reinforcements were deployed on Friday.


Kokri said, "The farm activists are determined not to lift the blockade till their long pending demands of power bill waiver are met and state government comes up to set a time frame to compensate the suicide-hit indebted farm/labourer families".


Meanwhile, Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said that authorities were trying to prevail upon farmers to lift the blockade, so that train services could be resumed.


In Beas, farm leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said that discussions were held on a positive note but they were told to wait till a final word was received from Chandigarh. "We have received a message for discussion once again. The government can't suppress voices in a democratic set up," said he.


SSP Amritsar, G S Chauhan said, "Too many farmer leaders were taking part in talks, making things more complicated. Government needs time to consider and analyze their fresh demands," he said. Though he ruled out using force on farmers to clear the NH 1, the farmers felt otherwise.