New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) A farmer, who was protesting at the Singhu border against the three contentious farm laws, died due to cardiac arrest on Monday, the police said here.
The deceased farmer, identified as Baghel Ram, 55, was a resident of Khela village in Punjab and was a member of Kirti Kisan Union (KKU).
Another KKU member Raghuveer Singh said that Baghel Ram was not keeping well for some time and was taking rest in his tent.
The police said as soon as they received information about Baghel's death, they rushed to the spot and took him to a nearby hospital where the farmer was declared brought dead. After the post-mortem it was learnt that the farmer died due to heart attack.
Earlier there were reports of chaos due to farmer's death, but the police denied all such reports.
His death comes on a day of countrywide strike by farm unions.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a consortium of 100-odd farmers unions from across India, 15 trade unions and several political parties have jointly called a Bharat Bandh from 6 a.m. till 4 p.m. on Monday to mark the first anniversary of what they termed as a 'Black Day' when the President of India had given his assent to the three farm laws last year.
At the Singhu border, there were a large number of tractor trolleys parked but there were relatively very few people. This is one of the places where farmers have been sitting on protest since November 2020. Around two-and-a-half km long stretch of Delhi-Karnal highway (at Singhu village), where a large number of farmers was always seen during the last few months, on Monday bore an almost deserted look. Even the two stages erected for regular speeches and rallies were almost empty.
Jagdish Singh, a farmer from Ludhiana (Punjab) said, "Trolleys are vacant because people living in them have gone to block roads at Tikri and Delhi-Haryana border."
"By evening the situation will be different and more and more people will be here," Singh, who was busy preparing food for the protesters, told IANS.
People, who were at the Singhu protest site, were seen busy either preparing food or cleaning their tents.
Security at the outer premises of Singhu protest site has been strengthened with multiple teams of Delhi Police and Central forces deployed. People going towards Singhu from Delhi have to take a long circuitous way as the entry on the Delhi-Karnal Road (at Singhu village) has been prohibited.
At a three-hour-long hearing, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked UP, Haryana and Punjab governments to provide Rs 100 per quintal assistance within seven days to small and marginal farmers to help them from burning stubble to clear fields.
Punjab will organise a grand multi-media light and sound show at historical Sultanpur Lodhi city to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh master.
Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Monday that a permanent long term solution will be found for the issue of air pollution in Delhi and neighbouring states.
If you live in Delhi-NCR, there's more bad news in store for you. A whopping 41 per cent of the Delhi and NCR population are found to be suffering from severe heavy metal toxicity, according to a survey conducted by Daivam Wellness.
