Punjab: SKM (Non-Political) to hold protest against AAP govt

Chandigarh, Jun 2 (PTI) Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal on Monday said the farmers will hold a state-wide agitation against the Punjab government on Tuesday for putting several cultivators, who opposed laying a sewerage pipeline project in Bathinda, behind bars.

Dallewal said the effigies of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal will be burnt at all district headquarters in Punjab on Tuesday.

The farmers, associated with the SKM (Non-Political), have been protesting against the state government's decision of laying a sewerage pipeline passing through the residential area of Ghasokhana village in Bathinda district.

They apprehend that any leakage in the sewerage pipeline could create problems for residents.

Dallewal said that several farmers, who were protesting against the sewerage pipeline project, have been held and put in jail in the past few days.

"Till now, over 100 farmers are in jail. Of them, nine are observing the hunger strike in the prison and five more farmers today began their hunger strike," he added.

Dallewal said the SKM (Non-Political) on Sunday night decided to hold a state-wide agitation on Tuesday and urged the farmers to participate in the protest in large numbers.

Earlier on Sunday, the farmer leader claimed that he was "detained" by police at his residence in Faridkot ahead of his press conference in Bathinda over the sewerage pipeline project.

Dallewal further said that he accepted the chief minister's son to a debate with farmer bodies.

A few days back, Mann had dared farmers' unions to have live discussions with him on the various issues pertaining to agrarian crisis. PTI CHS AS AS