logo Sun, Jan 28, 2024

Suspend stir, get tested for COVID-19, it's infecting villages: Khattar to farmers

Farm leaders are not encouraging protesters to get tested or vaccinated: Khattar
Suspend stir, get tested for COVID-19, it's infecting villages: Khattar to farmers
Suspend stir, get tested for COVID-19, it's infecting villages: Khattar to farmers

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday urged farmers to suspend their stir against farm laws amid the grim Covid-19 situation, claiming that their movements to and from dharna sites were spreading the infection in villages.

Chief Minister Khattar along with Health Minister Anil Vij also expressed exasperation over farmer leaders' reluctance to ask agitating farmers to get themselves tested for Covid-19 and treated against the infection.

Urging farmers to stop their stir, Khattar said farmers may resume the agitation later if they wish, but they must stop it as of now.

If they wish to restart these dharnas once the situation is under control, they are free to do so, Khattar told a news conference digitally.

He said he had appealed to farmers' leaders even a month earlier to suspend their dharnas so that the disease does not spread.

Referring to farmers' movement to and from dharna sites, Khattar said, What is coming to the fore now is that because of these dharnas, this (infection) has spread.

In many villages, hotspots have emerged because their people are regularly coming and going back from dharna sites, the chief minister added.

Farmers have not only been sitting in protest near the Singhu and Tikri borders but in many other parts of Haryana too.

Their leaders should understand the situation even now. They keep ranting that they will take the vaccine but will not get themselves tested. If they do not get tested, one doesn't know who might have been impacted by COVID, said Khattar.

They should come forward to be tested so that those found positive can be treated and other necessary measures can be taken accordingly, he added.

Referring to protesting farmers' reluctance to be tested for the infection, the chief minister said everyone should have faith in the health and medical system. If we start doubting it, it displays our narrow mindedness. So, I appeal to farmers sitting on dharnas to get their tests done.

Health Minister Anil Vij too on Thursday lamented farmer leaders' outright refusal to ask their followers to take the COVID test.

Our officials held a meeting with farmers' leaders last month but they outrightly refused to appeal to peasants to undergo tests, said Vij.

"I had sent health teams for the vaccination and testing at the protest sites near Delhi borders. So far, not more than 1,900 have taken the tests," he said.

Recent Comments

    No Comments Found...

Leave Comments

Enter Captcha Code

19343
Top