What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
SANGRUR: On a sunny day in Punjab’s Sangrur, Amrinder Preet Kaur held her emotions tight as she saw her father’s name engraved on the first memorial in remembrance of peasants who died in the year-long protest over three contentious farm laws. She slammed the government for delay in taking a decision to repeal the three farm laws due to which 700 farmers protesting against it died and said the farmers must continue the protest till all their demands are met.
On Wednesday, Punjab government Minister Vijay Inder Singla inaugurated the memorial of farmers which has names of 58 farmers from Sangrur who died in the last one year.
Speaking to The New Indian, Kaur showed the name of her father engraved at number 30 and said, “My father first protested at the local toll plaza in Sangrur and then went to Delhi in December last year.”
She said that her father returned from Delhi for some time and then once again went back to the national capital to join the protest in February. However, he fell ill in Delhi and his health started deteriorating. Consequently, he came back. After a few days, he passed away at a hospital in Patiala, she said.
Kaur, who works as a teacher at a private school, said that the doctors informed the family that the condition of her father had not been good since December and that he was affected by a severe cold in Delhi.
“The central government delayed the decision to repeal the three farm laws. Now, my father can never come back. He was only 50 years old. Similarly, 700 other farmers died in the last one year while protesting the three farm laws. The loss to their families is immense,” she said.
On the farmers holding on to the protest and not calling quits, she said, “The farmers’ demands are yet unfilled. It took the farmers a year to get the government to repeal the three contentious farm laws. Many lives were lost, but they did not lose hope. It is their resilience that has made it (repeal) possible.”
Kaur is the eldest of the siblings. Now, her brother has been given a government job. Her younger sister is pursuing a law degree and aspires to serve in the judiciary. Her dream, she shares, is to see her brother and sister “well settled” in accordance with her father’s dreams.
