BATHINDA: The farmers of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) deferred laying siege to Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s house at Badal village after senior officers agreed to meet them on Saturday to discuss compensation for the loss of cotton crop.
The officers who will meet them are attached with the chief minister’s office (CMO) and the financial commissioners in Chandigarh. Deciding not to cordon Manpreet’s house on Friday, the farmer union said the outcome of the meeting will decide their next action. The state government is ready to announce compensation based on the policy of Rs 12,000 per acre but the farmers are demanding Rs 60,000 and Rs 30,000 for farm labourers who lost their jobs because of crop failure. Pink bollworm has affected the cotton fields of Bathinda and Mansa districts the most.
The farmer union had started its protest for compensation near Manpreet’s house on October 5 and laid siege to it for some time on Thursday before the district administration convinced them to lift it. BKU Ugrahan state secretary Shingara Singh Mann, who led a parallel protest at Badal village for compensation, said, “We had given the district administration time till Friday afternoon. So, when no announcement was made by the deadline, we started for the finance minister’s house. Muktsar’s top administrators made another contact with Chandigarh and told us the chief minister was busy with the wedding of his son but senior officers will meet us.”
The assurance of a meeting made the farmers defer their siege plan for a day to check the outcome. Mann said, “Compensation at Rs 12,000 per acre is unacceptable.” Asked about it, Muktsar deputy commissioner H S Soodan said, “The meeting will have the principal secretary to the chief minister, besides the financial commissioners of development and revenue, and the discussions will not restrict to policy. We explained this to the farmers.”
The farmers blame spurious seeds and pesticides for the crop failure and they also ask for investigation against the suppliers. Chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had visited the affected villages on September 26 and had asked the agriculture department to complete the girdawari (revenue assessment).
