Farmers in Punjab's Abohar region, famous for its kinnow, are worried about not getting the right price for the fruit this year. In Fazilka, farmers staged a demonstration outside the DC office and overturned trolleys loaded with kinnow. To register their protest, the farmers threw the citrus fruits on the road and plied a tractor over them.
On Friday afternoon, several gardeners from Abohar, along with farmer organizations, came out to protest at the DC office, but were stopped by police, which had put up barricades on the way. The farmers insisted on going to the DC office for talks and sat on dharna.
Late in the evening, the farmers arrived outside the DC office and overturned trolleys loaded with kinnow and drove the tractor over them.
The protest was attended by farmers belonging to Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Siddhapur and Bharti Kisan Union Rajewal.
In the Abohar region, the price of kinnow is barely Rs 7-8 per kg as sufficient quantity of the fruits is not being procured. This is not even half as compared to Rs 20-25 per kg last year. The farmers are demanding that the price of kinnow should be at least Rs 12 a kg.
Farmers are not able to get their costs due to lack of right prices. The farmers' unions have warned that if their demands were not met, they would bring 200 trolleys and stage a protest in front of the DC office on Tuesday.
Punjab has witnessed a bumper crop of kinnow this year. But farmers are frustrated in the absence of right price and buyers for their produce. Satnam Singh, a farmer from Punjab village in Abohar, has uprooted his 10-acre orchard. Farmers are also demanding fixing of minimum support price of kinnow.