Farmer from Baghpat dies at Ghazipur protest site on Delhi-UP border
New Delhi, January 1, 2021
Amid freezing temperatures in Delhi and adjoining areas, a farmer from Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh died near Ghazipur border on Friday while protesting against the new agricultural laws enacted by the Central government.
The farmer, Galtan Singh (57), was a resident of Bhagwanpur Nagal village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, said Saurav, an associate of Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, who is leading the farmers from the state demonstrating at Ghazipur on the border with Delhi.
Saurav told IANS: "Galtan Singh was in good health and fit and but he suddenly felt uneasy with complaint of chest pains and was taken to the hospital but he died on the way. The body has been sent to his village."
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader from Uttar Pradesh Sachin Chaudhary, who has been protesting against the three farm laws at Ghazipur border, said, "Sacrifice of Galtan Singh will not go in vain."
Several farmers have died during the protest due to the severe cold weather, he added.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) General Secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal said, "The farmers have been protesting on the borders of the national capital since November 26, 2020 and the death toll of farmers since then has reached 43."
"The government should listen to those who are ready to sacrifice their lives and repeal the agricultural laws which are anti-farmers," he added.
The farmers protesting under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha have been demanding the withdrawal of the three laws and legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) which is declared every year by the Centre for 23 crops while the government has assured them that it will accept two of their demands related to stubble burning and electricity subsidies.
The protests are going on at Singhu and Tikri on Delhi's border with Haryana and at Ghazipur on the border with Uttar Pradesh amid the severe cold wave in the region, with the mercury plummeting to 1.1 degree Celsius in the early hours of today.
IANS
