COURTESY HT DEC 29

Farmers stop steel silo plant construction in Gurdaspur villages
Anil Sharma

anil.kumar@htlive.com

GURDASPUR : Angered over the contentious three farm laws, farmers have stopped the construction work of a steel silo plant which is being built over around 25 acres falling under three villages of Dhariwal block in Gurdaspur district.

The farmers under the banner of the panchayat of Chhina village—one of the three villages—had on Thursday halted the construction work, which is being carried out by National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCML). Since then, the farmers are keeping a “strict watch” so that the construction company does not resume the work. The other two villages are Churh Chak and Godharpur the land of which was also acquired for the project.

According to the claims of Chhina village panchayat, the project, once completed, will be handed over to a famous private company against which the farmers have already been protesting. However, the company claims that the construction was being done for the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

This comes when the farmers have been snapping power supply to mobile towers of a particular private company in the state, despite the Punjab chief minister (CM) Amarinder Singh’s appeal.

“When the acquisition of land for the project was started in 2017, we were told by the construction company that the project was for a private company. In protest against the three farm laws, the farmers of our village have stopped the work of the plant. Once constructed, the plant will prove as a final nail in the coffin of the commission agents of the area,” said Panthdeep Singh, sarpanch of Chhina village.

“We have also not been allowing any material to reach the construction site. We will not allow the resumption of the work until the three farm laws are scraped,” said 28-year-old Panthdeep, who is also one of the youngest sarpanches of Punjab.