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.
Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri and former cricketer Kapil Dev are among 490 Punjabis who will be honoured during the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak.
Speaking to a newspaper, the 82-year-old Engineer, who played 46 Tests for India, ridiculed the credentials of India’s five-member selection panel, led by MSK Prasad and comprising Sarandeep Singh and Jatin Paranjpe, Gagan Khoda and Devang Gandhi.
In a bid to spread the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will organise an international youth seminar on teachings of the first Sikh guru and Sikhism on November 6.
By the middle of next year, the Modi government would have a direct connectivity with over 11.5 crore farmers and their families across India, making it a communication exercise hitherto unprecedented in scale. If all goes well, the massive data bank on the farmers would be ready for release by June 2020.
"Indian users were among those contacted by us this week," a WhatsApp Spokesperson told IANS, without revealing the numbers or names of those affected.
