BATHINDA: Toughening their stand against the ban on burning of paddy stubble in fields, activists of farmer organization Kirti Kisan Union dumped tractor trolleys loaded with paddy stubble at the gate of Bathinda district administrative complex ( DAC ) on Thursday.They also challenged the district administration to plough back the residue into soil, saying, if done, they would consider similar arrangement in their fields.Failing to get any immediate response from the administration, the activists announced to start burning stubble in their fields at Joganand village in Bathinda from October 21.Maintaining that it was be just a symbolic protest, the farm activists said they could have easily burnt the stubble dumped at the DAC gate but chose not to. However, the administration had called a fire brigade vehicle just in case of fire. After the protesters left the place, officials brought a JCB machine from Bathinda Municipal Corporation and loaded it into tractor trolley of the corporation.The farm organizations are demanding a bonus of Rs 200 per quintal on paddy, or Rs 6,000 an acre. The state government has announced to take a number of measures including marking red entries into land records of farmers and fine for burning stubble. It has also appointed nodal officers in 8,000 villages to prevail upon farmers against burning stubble.Activists of other farmer organizations — BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), BKU (Ekta Dakonda) and BKU (Sidhupur) among others have already started burning the stubble in fields. On Thursday, BKU (Ugrahan) activists burnt stubble in 15 acres at Nangal Khurd village in Mansa district. Although police reached the spot to identify farmers who were burning stubble, it left after nearly 150 activists assembled there.Kirti Kisan Union Bathinda convener Amarjit Singh said, “Farmers do not want to burn stubble and were demanding compensation from the state government. We will face every harsh action the government takes against us, but we will continue to burn stubble.”

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