This comes a day ahead of a Supreme Court hearing in which it will take stock of the Punjab government’s efforts to provide treatment to farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on indefinite hunger strike for 35 days.A nine-hour bandh call by protesting farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha-Non Political (SKM-NP) over several demands, including legal guarantee for MSP, brought Punjab to a halt on Monday.
This comes a day ahead of a Supreme Court hearing in which it will take stock of the Punjab government’s efforts to provide treatment to farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on indefinite hunger strike for 35 days. Dallewal has refused treatment and resisted attempts to move him to hospital.
On Monday, roads were blocked and trains were stopped at over 250 locations in Punjab as part of the bandh that was in force from 7 am to 4 pm. As many as 172 train services, including Vande Bharat, were cancelled and 232 train services were affected. A large number of shops and industrial units were also closed.Apart from KMM and SKM-NP, two constituents of SKM – Krantikari Kisan Union (KKU) and BKU Dakaunda (Dhaner) – also supported the bandh call.
KKU president Darshan Pal said, Our union supported the bandh call and in 12 districts, our members participated in it. We fully support all the demands of the farmers protesting at Shambhu and Khanauri borders.At Shambhu railway station, Sukhwinder Kaur, general secretary of BKU Krantikari, led the dharna, and at Dapper Toll Plaza in Mohali on the NH-152, the dharna was led by farmer leader Baljit Kaur – also of BKU Krantikari.
Sarwan Singh Pandher, coordinator of KMM and SKM-NP, was in Amritsar, which also saw the most number of protests – 32 – followed by 12 in Patiala, 10 in Moga and nine in Sangrur. Pandher said people supported the bandh call and that no one was forced to close their premises.BKU Dakaunda (Dhaner) blockaded the road at around 12 places each in Barnala, Sangrur and Mansa in support of both forums, confirmed Manjit Singh Dhaner, president of the union.
On December 28, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Punjab government for not moving Dallewal to a hospital. The court has posted the matter for further hearing on December 31.