Govt foils farmers’ plan to lay siege to CM Amarinder’s Patiala palace

All the entry points to the city were sealed. The Punjab Police said as many as 4,000 personnel were deployed in the town. The venue was also guarded by policemen, armed with fire tenders, riot control vehicles and mobile surveillance vans. Senior police officers, including Patiala range IG A S Rai, visited the site to review the arrangements. The farmers, carrying yellow and green flags, had brought along utensils and stoves to cook for themselves to sustain for the next four days. The district administration made arrangements for drinking water and make-shift conveniences.

Darshan Pal, a senior leader of BKU (Dakaunda), criticised the government for preventive arrests of several farmers leaders. “Why is the government so scared of innocent farmers? The leaders were arrested by the police when they were asleep at their homes. We are only protesting peacefully. The government had promised a loan waiver and the farmers are not getting benefits. At least 47 farmers have committed suicides in past one month,” he said.

President of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta-Dakaunda, Buta Singh, said political parties did not care about the farmers but wanted to play politics on their issues. The orders passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on banning burning of paddy stubble was a cause of concern for the farmers. “We are already under debt. If we do not burn paddy stubble, it would mean our cost of input goes up drastically. Where would we go? They all just pass orders,” said Megha Singh, a farmer from Sanaur who had come to participate in the protest along with his wife.

Pritam Singh, another farmer said he had filled the form in which Amarinder had promised a waiver. “Now they tell me they will not waive off my entire debt. I owe Rs 6 six lakh to commission agents. Where should I go? Just see the video in which the CM is telling farmers not to pay a single paisa to the bank,” he said while showing a video on his smartphone.

Joginder Singh, leader of BKU Ugrahan, demanded a bonus of Rs 200 per quintal for disposing of paddy stubble in an environment-friendly manner. After the day went off peacefully, the Chief Minister ordered the release of all the farmers taken into preventive detention. He also constituted a three-member committee, headed by senior party leader and Chairman of Mandi Board, Lal Singh, to hear their grievances and apprise them of the steps taken by his government regarding the promised crop loan waiver.

A government statement later in the day said the CM had directed the DGP and district authorities to facilitate the release of the farmers, who were clearly “resorting to agitation out of sheer desperation and did not really mean to create any law and order problem”. While appealing to the farmers to be patient, the CM said that he had inherited a government with empty coffers but despite that, steps to waive off the crop loans of the farmers had been initiated and a notification, the draft of which was cleared by the cabinet two days ago, would be issued soon.