Eight farmers unions and four farm labourers unions today decided to continue the gherao of ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries in all districts of Punjab to press the state government to accept their demands.
After a meeting of the unions here, Sukhdev Singh Kokari, General Secretary, BKU-Ekta Ugrahan, said the unions were unhappy with the progress made by the Punjab government with respect to their demands and they unanimously decided that the gherao of ministers and CPSs by showing black flags would be continued, he said.
"Our members are busy harvesting the paddy crop. After the harvest and sale of the crop farmers unions would take more effective steps to continue the agitation," he said.
Kokari, who presided over today's meeting, said their agitation would continue until the government accepts their demands.
The unions are demanding fixing of Basmati's MSP which had fallen steeply leading to huge loses to the farmers.
He said farmers who had suffered heavy losses to cotton crops due to pest attack were demanding Rs 40,000 per acre, Rs 20,000 per acre to farm labourers and Rs 5 lakh to the families of the farmers who had committed suicide.
According to Lakhowal, due to low prices of wheat during
the last 25 years a farmer has to bear a loss of Rs 20,000 a year while losses on account of other crops were different.
According to a study conducted by the Punjab Farmers' Commission, it was reported that due to low Minimum Support Price for paddy alone, during the last 20 years, farmers have had to suffer losses of Rs 40,000 crore.
Addressing the protesters, BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikaith said various farmers' organisations had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and requested him to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee report and protested in Delhi also but he "never paid heed to their demands".
