Sangrur: The protesting farmer’s corpse hasn’t been burned after five days

The 52-year-old farmer, Karamjit Singh, a native of Sangatpura village (Lehra), could not get a post-mortem examination performed at Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, even after five days had passed.

As of today, negotiations between the Lehra government and BKU (Ugrahan) leaders have not produced a resolution. Following a heart attack during a protest dharna against private silos at Sunam organized by the BKU (Ugrahan) on April 11, Karamjit Singh passed away on April 11 at Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.

In addition, the farmers’ union has been staging a “pucca morcha” outside the Lehra SDM’s office since April 12 in an effort to demand Rs 10 lakh in compensation for the family of the dead farmer, the full forgiveness of the family debt, and the assignment of a government job to a family member.

The farmer Karamjit Singh’s corpse has been sitting in the Government Rajindra Hospital morgue since the BKU (Ugrahan) said that it would not be cremated until the district administration and the Punjab government have complied with all three requests.

Bahal Singh Dhindsa, the district vice-president of BKU (Ugrahan), informed this reporter that a meeting between union leaders and government officials, including Lehra SDM, was conducted at the Police Lines, Sangrur, today in order to address the problem. However, the officials informed them that because of the model code of conduct’s adoption, the administration was unable to provide the Rs 10 lakh in compensation or meet other requests. As a result, he said, their discussions with the government were still fruitless.

General secretary of the Lehra block of BKU (Ugrahan), Bahadur Singh Bhutal, said that the union would have to step up its struggle to get justice for Karamjit Singh if the state government did not listen to our demands.