Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's fast unto death enters 5th day

Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal's fast unto death to press for various demands of farmers entered its fifth day on Wednesday. Dallewal began his fast on Saturday last in Punjab's Faridkot to press for enhanced compensation for land acquired for national highway projects, compensation for crop damage due to inclement weather and pest attack and rolling back of heavy fines imposed for stubble burning.

Speaking to reporters at the protest site in Faridkot on Wednesday, Dallewal said, "Even if I die, I appeal to farmer colleagues to carry out their protests in a peaceful manner".

He said his weight loss, fluctuation in blood pressure and low blood sugar level were not weighing on his mind at the moment. "I am not thinking about these things. We are here so that the government should issue a notification for the demands they had already accepted and meet some demands like rolling back of red entries and heavy fines for burning crop stubble," he said.

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A medical team has been stationed at the protest site in Faridkot to monitor the farmer leader's health. Doctors attending to Dallewal had earlier said that his blood sugar level was low.

The district administration and senior police officials have been persuading Dallewal to end his fast. Dallewal also demanded that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann should apologise to farmers for his remarks against them.

Mann had slammed the farmers' unions on Friday last for frequently blocking roads in Punjab as part of their protests.

Hitting back, Dallewal had then said that if their sit-ins were wrong, then why did AAP leaders join the protests against the farm laws at the Delhi borders.

The farmers' protest entered its eighth day on Wednesday. The BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) is spearheading the protests in Amritsar, Mansa, Patiala, Faridkot and Bathinda in Punjab.

Dallewal had earlier accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of acting like the BJP did during the farmers' stir against the farm laws.

Farmers were compelled to stage sit-ins on roads after their protests outside the offices of deputy commissioners did not yield any positive response from the state government, he had said.

Different farmer unions have held sit-ins in Faridkot, Amritsar, Patiala, Mansa and Bathinda districts over the past few days.