Ruchika M. Khanna
Chandigarh, May 17
Hundreds of farmers associated with 23 farmer unions of Punjab on Tuesday morning started reaching Gurdwara Amb Sahib in Mohali, from where they would be marching towards Chandigarh, to start a dharna here in protest against the paddy sowing schedule announced by the state government, besides 10 other demands.
The dharna was announced by the union leaders last week, after their talks with the Punjab government led by Power Minister Harbhajan Singh had failed. The farmers have been demanding that they be allowed to go in for paddy transplantation from June 10 and not June 18, as ordered by the state government.
The government had said that uninterrupted eight hour power supply to the agriculture Pumpset consumers will be given in zones on the dates announced by them. The state has been divided into five zones by the government. The farmers also demanding that the fee charged for increasing the power load be decreased by the government.
Other than this, they are protesting against the conversion of 85,000 smart meters into pre-paid meters. The state government, in a directive from the Centre, was asked to concern these into pre-paid meters of it wanted to continue receiving the power sector reform funds. They also want that the government ensured farmers get MSP on corn and notify the decision to give them MSP on Moong. The farmers say that though MSP on 23 crops is announced, but farmers get MSP only on wheat and paddy. Farmer unions have said that though they have had two rounds of meetings with the state government, they have been forced to start the protest from today as the meetings did not yield desired results.
Protesting Punjab farmers to soon march towards Chandigarh against govt’s early paddy sowing schedule
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