Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday urged farmer group Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) not to go ahead with their proposed sit-in protest, fearing that it could turn into a COVID-19 super-spreader.
As per a statement, the Chief Minister said his government had fought hard to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and any event, such as the proposed 3-day dharna of the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) in Patiala, had the potential to negate the gains made by his government in tackling COVID in the state.
Urging farmers' group not to act irresponsibly and jeopardise the lives of their own people with such behaviour amid the pandemic, he said: "Such a dharna would draw people mainly from the villages, which were, in any case, going through a crisis during the second wave of the pandemic."
He also said that the group's actions were completely unwarranted, considering the "total support the state government had extended all these months to the agitating farmers on the issue of the Centre's black Farm Laws."
"It is time for the farmers now to reciprocate by supporting the state government in the fight against the pandemic," he said, adding that just as the farmers' interests were linked with that of Punjab, so was Punjab's interest dependent on the farmers' support to his government in the battle against the pandemic.
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