The farmers are holding sit-in protests and demonstrations in 13 districts of the state, in front of various banks.
Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), are on a five-day protest against the Punjab government, seeking a complete waiver of loans.
On Wednesday, the second day of the protest, a number of women farmers joined the demonstration. The farmers are holding sit-in protests and demonstrations in 13 districts of the state, in front of various banks.
Apart from demanding a complete loan waiver, the protesters also pressed for increasing the compensation for families of farmers who committed suicide, and demanded that they be exempted from submitting blank cheques and they be returned to those who have submitted it.
Submitting blank cheques is one of the requirements for availing loans for farmers in Punjab. The farmers say the concerned banks give blank cheques for clearance without their consent, which in turn leads to the cheques bouncing and the banks slap fraud cases against them.
The farmers alleged that they were cheated by the Congress government in Punjab. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), said the Amarinder Singh government, which had promised a complete loan waiver, has since backtracked from its promises. "Now, banks are harassing farmers in the name of completing formalities to avail loans," he said.
The Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) has set a January 5 deadline to meet the farmers' demand, failing which the famers' body will go on a massive state-wide strike on January 18 with six other farmers' organisations.
The farmers' protests will coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state on Thursday. PM Modi will address a public rally in Gurdaspur after inaugurating the 106th edition of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) in Jalandhar. In the recent past, Modi has slammed Congress for "misleading farmers" in the name of loan waiver. The loan waiver issue was also a major poll plank for the Congress in the run up to last year's Assembly election.
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