Defiant farmers unite to dare govt’s stubble burning ban

KARNAL: Angry over the state government’s directions for strict action against those found burning paddy stubble, farmers under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) have decided to challenge the authorities.

The defiant farmers have decided to hold protests in all districts of the state and continue with the practice of burning paddy residue. To send out a strong message to the authorities, the farmers on Monday took out a protest march in Ladwa of Kurukshetra district. They had also brought along the paddy residue asking the authorities to find buyers for the crop waste.

“If the government takes action against us for burning paddy residue, we will show them the power of farmers. If they dare to arrest even a single farmer for the offence, thousands of us will court arrest in their support,” said BKU state president Ratan Mann addressing the protesting farmers.

“We decided to hold a protest against the black laws being imposed on farmers. We will challenge this as we have no alternative,” Ratan Mann said.

The farmers on Monday changed their plan to burn the residue during after a heavy police deployment at the protest site. Farmers in neighbouring Punjab are already holding protests against the ban on stubble burning.

The farmers alleging that the government’s decision has also resulted in labour shortage as they are not using combine harvesters, resulting in a rise in demand for manual harvesting.

The Rashtriya Kisan Mahsangh has also decided to challenge the ban order and asked the farmers to get united. “We are against the ban as the government has failed to provide any alternative. Arrests and fines will not help until the government comes out with a permanent solution to the problem”, said Rashtriya Kisan Mahsangh member Gurnam Singh Chaduni.

However, the government assured that they are providing subsidies on the happy seeders and straw reapers, but the farmers alleging that the announcements are only in papers and there are no straw reapers even in their nearby villages and they cannot wait for more as they have