Give financial relief to kin of Covid victims: Farmers

Patiala, May 29

Hundreds of farmers under the aegis of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU Ugrahan) today continued with their three-day protest in Patiala alleging the Centre and state government had failed to act against the spread of Covid-19.

On the second day of the agitation, 1,500 farmers gathered at the PUDA ground ensuring social distancing. They wore masks, carried sanitisers and water bottles.

General secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said: “The Punjab Government should tell us where the money allocated to the Health Department was spent. Last year, they got Rs 1,000 crore, but no one knows where it was spent. Why all available ventilators in Punjab are still non-functional? They should answer why out of 2,010 level-3 beds, only 550 are in government facilities. Government hospitals have one bed per 55,455 persons and people are suffering, especially in villages.”

Leaders of the union said the state and the central governments had failed in executing their duties in the pandemic. “The state government should provide monetary benefits to the farmers and families of those who died due to Covid along with a government job,” they said. — TNS