Bathinda: Police on Wednesday foiled BKU (Ekta Sidhupur)’s attempt to gather in Faridkot in support of three demands, detaining several senior functionaries and placing organisation president Jagjit Singh Dallewal under house arrest for several hours.Angered by the action, farm activists blocked highways at Tehna in Faridkot, Mandi Kalan in Bathinda and other locations. When several functionaries gathered at Dallewal’s residence, police allowed him to leave.He later joined protesters blocking the Faridkot-Ferozepur road at Pipli village in Faridkot. The organisation had earlier called a gathering at Faridkot on Aug 29, but police detained nearly 200 functionaries.Subsequently, jathas of 21 activists presented themselves for arrest daily until Sep 7, when all those detained were released, Dallewal and state general secretary Kaka Singh Kotda said. The two alleged that the state govt’s written assurance to Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme was not time-bound and the proposed committee could further delay the matter.BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) has been protesting since March 30 over three demands: return of blank cheques collected by Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Banks (PADBs) from farmers against loans, an OTS scheme to settle loan accounts, and compensation for valuables allegedly stolen during the Shambhu and Khanauri morchas.The organisation began a morcha near the residence of assembly speaker at Sandhwan village in Faridkot on Aug 5. Police removed the protesters and detained activists on Aug 14. Dallewal alleged the state govt had failed to resolve the issue of PADBs retaining blank cheques from farmers.He said this was against Supreme Court directions, under which banks cannot demand blank cheques as security when land has already been pledged against a loan.
