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.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the state roadways bus that fell into a 500 metre deep gorge following the massive landslide was recovered this morning, rescuers said.
Senior Home Ministry officials on Thursday reviewed the status of the investigations in the two rape cases in Delhi with officials of the Delhi Police. The review was done on the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the officials said.
All agencies such as the Crime Branch, Intelligence Bureau, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) unit, Harayana Police Commandos and Government Railway Police (GRP) have been placed on high alert.
The committee headed by Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar Lallu includes Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra, former MPs, MLAs and most of the former UPCC presidents.
A delegation of BJD MPs from both the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his Parliament chamber and submitted a memorandum in this regard.
