Union seeks ₹1cr relief, job for kin

FARIDKOT: Farmers protesting at Jaitu against FIRs for stubble burning under the banner of the BKU Ekta and Sidhupur factions on Sunday did not let the authorities conduct the autopsy of the farmer who committed suicide at the protest site on Saturday.

They are demanding a compensation of ₹1 crore for the family of Jagseer Singh, 50, of Kotra Korianwala village in Bathinda district the pattern of the Delhi government and a job for the kin of the deceased. His body has been kept at the Jaitu government hospital.

Farmers also shifted Jagseer’s body from the Jaitu government hospital along with a mortuary refrigerator to the protest site at tehsil complex alleging that officials had cut off the electricity of the hospital’s mortuary.

“The authorities want the body to decay so we are compelled to cremate it. We have made arrangement for power supply so the body is preserved,” said farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal.

The farmer unions are holding a dharna for more than a month in Jaitu demanding the cancellation of FIRs registered against burning paddy stubble. Besides cancellation of FIRs, the farmers have been demanding the removal of red entries in revenue records and withdrawal of penalties imposed on them.

Deputy commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj tried to pacify the protesters but to no avail.

“If the Delhi government can give ₹1 crore compensation, why not Punjab?” questioned Kaka Singh, general secretary of the farmer union.

Jagseer’s son Gurwinder Singh said his father joined the protest at Jaitu and the family stands with the union’s decision.

“We are under a debt of ₹10 lakh. My father had participated in the agitation to protest against the FIRs lodged for stubble burning and seek the help of unions for debt waiver from the state government. As fate would have it, he passed away leaving the family even more shattered,” he said.