Medical aid: Punjab govt tries again, but Jagjit Singh Dallewal is adamant

As part of the efforts, team led by retired IPS officer Jaskaran Singh, which has made several attempts to convince Dallewal to take medical help, reached the protest site at Khanauri — on Punjab’s border with Haryana — and urged farmer leader to get shifted to a hospital, which he again refused. A team of medical officers accompanying Singh, however, collected blood samples and conducted a general examination. Singh told reporters Dallewal is weak, but “he is stable”.

When asked that farmers are apprehensive that police can force Dallewal to take medical aid, Singh said, “I have not seen any such circumstances”.

The blood test reports are likely to be submitted in the SC during the Tuesday hearing when Punjab government is likely to seek 3 more days from the court citing “several positive developments” that have taken place.

Officials privy to the development said the state government has decided to plead that they were in talks with Dallewal. The officials told The Indian Express that certain channels were being tried and Centre may also hold a meeting with the farmers. “Negotiations are on. We have been told that the Centre may consider holding a meeting with farmers. All channels are open. It appears that we will be able to avoid any confrontation with the farmers or forceful lifting of Dallewal,” said an official.

Meanwhile, in a video message, Dallewal claimed that for the past 10 days, the government has been making attempts every day “to overpower the morcha, even trying to forcibly take me” to the hospital. “The large gathering of farmers and youth has forced the government to step back,” he said, again making an appeal to the farmers “to remain vigilant” and guard the “protest site strongly”.