Three people were arrested late on Thursday under mining Act in Maur Charat Singh village of Maur constituency in Bathinda district. The arrests came after AAP MLA Sukhvir Singh Maisarkhana carried out raids in the village and called the police. The illegal mining was allegedly taking place in the fields of Harjinder Singh Baggi, who is the Bathinda district general secretary of BKU Ugrahan. While Baggi has not been named in the FIR, three tractor and earthmover machine drivers — Sukhjeet Singh, Gurmail Singh and Jeeta Singh — have been arrested. Soon after the incident, members of BKU Ugrahan staged a dharna near Baggi's fields and it continued till Friday afternoon. Shingara Singh Maan, state general secretary of BKU Ugrahan, said, “In Bathinda, the land is highly uneven that's why it is called 'tibbe di dharti'. Baggi was getting the uneven land leveled in the fields when AAP MLA Maisarkhana created a drama and got our farmers arrested. We will start a pakka dharna outside the Maur police station from Saturday onwards if the FIR is not quashed.” Rajwinder Singh Raju, another BKU Ugrahan member, added, “Instead of helping us with money in getting the land leveled, the AAP MLA is getting FIRs lodged.” A delegation of BKU Ugrahan will also meet SSP Bathinda on Saturday morning to discuss the issue. Shingara Singh added that they have also approached the Bathinda DC. He said, “Bathinda has very uneven land and it should be removed from the mining act. We have requested the DC to get this demand raised before the government.”
