Hundreds of farmers affiliated with the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) on Monday staged a demonstration outside the Land Mortgage Bank branch in Faridkot, shutting down the institution as part of an ongoing agitation across more than 12 districts of Punjab against alleged fraud committed by bank managers against farmers.
Led by BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the protesters demanded immediate action against the bank managers accused of defrauding farmers across Punjab. The demonstration was also marked by a protest march against the proposed India-US Free Trade Agreement, following which an effigy of US President Donald Trump was burnt.
Addressing the farmers, Dallewal alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government had promised to provide MSP on 23 crops within five minutes of coming to power, but had instead moved to attach the lands of indebted farmers who had taken loans from the Land Mortgage Bank. He said farmers had already been suffering repeated crop losses and had been forced to sell produce below MSP. The situation had turned so dire, he alleged, that two brothers from Nau village had died by suicide unable to bear the harassment of the Faridkot branch manager. Despite this, the Chief Minister, who claims to be a farmer’s son, was shielding the guilty officers instead of taking action against them, Dallewal charged.
The agitation of shutting down Land Mortgage Bank branches across 12 districts has been ongoing since March 30, he said, yet the state government has not acted against a single erring official.
On the FTA issue, Dallewal said the Modi government at the Centre was surrendering before Donald Trump and mortgaging the rights of over 140 crore Indians by pursuing a free trade agreement that would once again reduce India to a state of economic subjugation. He said a high-level American delegation was currently in India to advance negotiations on the pact. He demanded that agriculture, dairy and poultry sectors be kept out of the agreement and that import duties be levied on foreign goods to protect Indian farmers.
Dallewal announced that the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) would hold a major protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on June 23, for which farmer organisations across the country have been mobilised in large numbers.
