SC gives Punjab till December 31 to shift protesting farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal to hospital
The 70-year-old has been on an indefinite hunger strike since November 26 to press the Centre for legally guaranteed minimum support prices for crops.
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The Supreme Court on Saturday gave the Punjab government till December 31 to convince farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for over a month, to move to a hospital, PTI reported.
The vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia rebuked the Punjab government for not adhering to its earlier directives mandating medical care for Dallewal.
The court also reprimanded protesting farmers who objected to attempts by the Punjab government to hospitalise Dallewal, reported Live Law.
“What kind of farmers’ leaders are there who want Dallewal to die?” the court asked. “Dallewal appears to be [under] peer pressure.”
Dallewal, chief of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Khanauri, located on the Punjab-Haryana border, since November 26.
The 70-year-old cancer patient, who has held hunger strikes in the past, had announced his protest on the fourth anniversary of the farmers’ movement against the now-scrapped farm laws.
Dallewal’s hunger strike is part of a wider campaign by Punjab’s farm groups to press the Union government to accept their demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the cost at which the government procures crops from farmers.
Along with the legal guarantee, they have also been demanding the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for farming...
