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‘Always listened to my conscience’: Senior Punjab cop resigns to support protesting farmers
Punjab’s deputy inspector general of police (prisons) Lakhminder Singh Jakhar said he had tendered his resignation to the state government on Saturday.
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A senior official of Punjab police has quit his job to support farmers protesting the three new farm laws, saying the pieces of legislation were “detrimental to the interest of farmers and their future generations”. Punjab’s deputy inspector general of police (prisons) Lakhminder Singh Jakhar said he had tendered his resignation to the state government on Saturday.
“I Capt. Lakhminder Singh Jakhar, DIG, Prisons would like to inform you of my considered and introspective decision to stand with my farmer brothers who are peacefully protesting against the Farm Ordinances,2020 which are detrimental to the interest of farmers and their future generations,” Jakhar wrote to the principal secretary (home).
“As I am myself a farmer by birth and same being inherited to me from my forefathers who tilled their agricultural lands with hands to grow food and serve mankind. I have always listened to my conscience and now I earnestly feel that I should stand by my brotherhood,” he said in the letter.
Also read | Hundreds of women from Haryana and Punjab join farmers’ agitation
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at various border points of Delhi to protest the new farm laws, which they fear will dismantle the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporates.
“Farmers have been protesting peacefully for long. Nobody heard their problems. I am from a disciplined force and as per rules, I can’t support a protest if I am on duty. I have to decide about my job first then decide further course of action,” Jakhar said, according to news agency ANI. “As per rules, I have to give three months’ notice for such an action or I have to submit the paid allowances of that period if I want to resign today. I am ready to deposit the amount because I have to go now. I am a farmer’s son and I am proud of it,” he added.
Also read | New laws meant to make farmers prosperous: Modi
Shiromani Akali Dal’s leader and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has said he has returned his Padma Vibhushan award in protest against the Centre’s farm laws. SAD (Democratic) leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa had also announced that he would return the Padma Bhushan award to express solidarity with farmers.
Several international players from Punjab have also extended their support to the farmers’ agitation. Noted Punjabi poet Surjit Patar had also announced his decision to return his Padma Shri award.
