Farmers brave the chill, continue their protest
Sunday, 24/01/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
BATHINDA/AMRITSAR: In weather that leaves you numb in minutes, farmers were out braving elements for the second day running, in protest against the Centre and the state government at Rai Ke Kalan near Bathinda.
Farmers protesting at Rai Ke Kalan village near Bathinda on Saturday.
Hundreds of them under the banner of eight agricultural unions and four farm-labour unions demand ` 40,000 per acre as compensation for damage to cotton crop by the whitefly pest attack. Even though due to meet Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on January 27, they had decided to go ahead with the scheduled protest.
Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) leader Sukhdev Singh Khokri Kalan said the farmers’ unions would meet on Sunday (January 24) at Moga to decide whether or not to extend the protest till January 27. However, another leader from the same union said most likely they would.
“Cold conditions haven’t affected our spirits. Most of us have brought our bedding along, and the rest have been provided with it by the gurdwara where they are gathered,” said Lachhman Singh Sewewala, adding: “Bonfires help us through night.”
In Amritsar, farmers continued with their demonstration outside the office of the deputy commissioner, saying they had no faith in the CM, who was yet to implmnt his decisions from the earlier talks between October 12 and December 15, last year.
