Chandigarh: Even as the health of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal continued to decline as his fast-unto-death entered the 17th day on Thursday, the doctors attending on him held that since his condition continued to rapidly deteriorate, he needed to be hospitalised.
It may be recalled that Dallewal, who has been one of the prominent faces of the farmers’ stir, has been on a fast-unto-death at Khanauri border for the past 17 days to press for various farmers demands including legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for their crops and loan waiver, besides others.
The doctors held that Dallewal, a cancer patient, had lost over 12 kg and was at a risk of kidney failure and heart attack; the doctors also warned of liver complications due to prolonged fasting.
Meanwhile, in another development, Samyukta Kisan Morcha leader Rakesh Tikait and Harinder Singh Lakhowal have announced that they would be visiting Dallewal at Khanauri on Friday.
Also, Punjab assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan has urged the Union government to immediately initiate dialogue with the farmers to resolve their issues and demands.
DALLEWAL's OPEN LETTER TO PM
Meanwhile, Dallewal on Thursday wrote an open letter to prime minister Narendra Modi, saying that the demands on which the farmers’ movement was going were not just farmers’ demands but were the promises made by governments at different times.
Expressing disappointment that the Central government had yet not implemented the C2 plus 50% formula, Dallewal said that while the Centre had made many promises including ensuring the MSP after farmers’ 2020-2021 agitation, the same were still not fulfilled.
``I have decided to sacrifice my life to stop the death of farmers. I hope that after my death, the central government will wake up from its slumber and move forward towards fulfilling our 13 demands including the law on MSP’’, he wrote, according to media reports. He wrote that if he died, then its responsibility would be of the Central government, the media reports added.
