Farmers protest against the state government Monday. Express Farmers protest against the state government Monday. Express AHEAD OF a five-day dharna threatened by farmers outside Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence in Patiala, nearly 300 farmers were arrested in Bathinda and Patiala zones on Sunday and Monday. All these are preventive arrests in which several active farmer union leaders have been taken into custody. Raids started on Sunday and continued on Monday. Leaders of seven farmer unions had announced that the farmers would sit on a five-day-long dharna outside the CM’s residence in Moti Bagh, Patiala, from September 22 to September 26 to protest the non-fulfilment of promises on debt waiver and other issues. However, police have started making arrests. Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary of Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan), said, “Although a number of our activists have been arrested, we will still reach Patiala by all means. This is an effort to stop us from reaching Patiala, but we will not succumb to this pressure.” Other unions, which are part of this protest, are BKU (Ekta), BKU (Dakaunda), Kirti Kisan Union, Pendu Khet Mazdoor Union, etc. Sadhu Singh, a BKU (Ekta) leader, has been arrested. In Bathinda, union leaders Gurjit Singh Gill, Hardev Singh Jaisinghwala and a few others have been arrested. Though police raided the house of BKU (Ugrahan) president Jhanda Singh Jethuke, he was not arrested. In many villages of Mansa district, police went to farmer union members’ houses to seek details about Aadhaar cards, said Rama Singh Bhainibhaga, a union leader from Mansa. Meanwhile, union leaders have been holding meetings for the past one week about the march to Patiala. On August 22, farmers took out a rally in Barnala, where they had announced about the September 22 dharna. The farmers, however, stated that the government had failed to notify the promises made to farmers and instead, started arresting farmers. Incidentally, Farmers burnt effigies of the government over the arrests. While 81 preventive arrests have been made in the Bathinda zone, comprising Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Moga districts, over 200 have been arrested in Patiala zone, comprising Barnala, Sangrur, Patiala, Roopnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and SAS Nagar districts. For all the latest Chandigarh News, download Indian Express App

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