BATHINDA: Demanding compensation of Rs 60,000 per acre to aggrieved farmers for damage to cotton crop due to pink bollworm attack, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) on Tuesday started an indefinite protest near the residence of Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal at Badal village.
Father union activists called from five districts, of Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Fazilka and Faridkot, assembled at Ghudda village before proceeding to Badal village. Police had put up barricades near Badal village, but did not stop them when farmers in large numbers reached there.
On October 1, protests were organised at the offices of deputy commissioners in these districts and farmers had given a call for indefinite protest from October 5, demanding compensation to cotton growers for losses suffered by them.
The state government has already ordered a special girdawari (revenue assessment) and made compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre admissible for losses from 76-100%.
However, farmers are demanding Rs 60,000 per acre apart from compensation of Rs 30,000 per farm labourer family for losing out the job.
“We demand that the aggrieved farmers be provided compensation of Rs 60,000 per acre as the crop has been damaged completely and six months of farming have gone waste. Many farmers will have to pay land lease without getting any crop,” said BKU Ugrahan women wing head Harinder Kaur Bindu and Bathinda district general secretary Harjinder Singh Baggi.
Farm organisation’s Mansa district president Ram Singh Bahinibagha said the protest would run parallel to those already going on at various places in Punjab and at Bahadurgarh near Delhi against the contentious farm laws.
