Stopped before venue, farmers block highway

MALOUT:After police stopped them from reaching the venue of the ‘Kisan Kalyan rally’ being addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Malout, hundreds of farmers under the banner of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) blocked the national highway (NH-15), a few kilometres from the public meeting.

The farmers had arrived here to show black flags to Modi for not implementing the Swaminathan commission report in letter and spirit. They claimed that more than 150 farmers were detained at the Kotbhai police station for several hours. The protesting farmers raised slogans against the Modi government and the Punjab Police.

Sukhdev Singh Booda Gujjar, a farmer union leader, said, “The government has not included land rent while calculating the crop cost. The hike in minimum support price (MSP) is just eyewash and is negligible as compared to the hike in the cost of diesel and other inputs.”

“The hike in MSP is much less as compared to the recommendation of the commission and the government is betraying the farmers,” he said.