Our Correspondent Ludhiana, December 8 The Bharti Kisan Union (BKU), Kadian, has lauded the role played by the apex court in taking the Centre and the state government to task for their failure to make alternative arrangements for the management of stubble. Addressing a meeting of the state committee here today, BKU president Harmeet Singh Kadian said it was only due to the effective intervention of the Supreme Court that government had announced a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal. “The court had also ruled that booking farmers for stubble burning was no solution to the problem,” he remarked. BKU general secretary Jagdev Singh Kaniawali sounded a note of warning to the cooperative and other banks for harassment of debt-ridden farmers by threats of attachment of property. He said farmers – under the banner of BKU – would launch a movement against highhandedness of the banks and would also gherao the Punjab Cooperatives Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Another BKU member, Gurmeet Singh Golewal said a hike of just Rs 85 per quintal in MSP of wheat was a cruel joke with farmers. During the past one year, prices of diesel, farm chemicals, fertilizers and labour had gone up by almost 25 per cent and the farmers had to spend Rs 4,000 extra per acre. “BKU would not settle for anything less than the rate fixed on the basis of Dr Swaminathan Committee recommendation which worked out to Rs 3,200 per quintal,” he asserted. He said all cases under Section 188 of the IPC registered against farmers for stubble burning be cancelled.

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