Congress MP from ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu on Wednesday surrendered before the Bathinda local court and was sent to judicial custody until October 19 against non-bailable offences slapped on him after he led a party protest in pesticide scam.
Two cases for causing loss to public property, obstructing public servant from official duty and attacking policemen on duty was registered against him on September 30.
Bittu had then locked Bathinda Chief Agriculture Officer and had tried to lock the district administrative complex. Earlier, Bittu tried to surrender at the Civil lines Police Station, but the police refused to arrest him.
Bittu, accompanied by party MlAs Rakesh Pandey, Surinder Davar, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Mohd Saddiq, and hundreds of supporters, reached the court complex and surrendered in the court. The court sent him and Vikramjit Singh Mofar, son of Sardulgarh Congress MlA Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, to judicial custody till October 19.
ludhiana MP claimed that the police had registered false cases against him.
Cases under sections 342, 452, 427, 353, 186, 148, and 149 were registered against Bittu and others on the complaint of Bathinda agriculture officer and for holding agitation in front of Bhatinda DC office.
Before surrendering, Bittu stated that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should immediately demand a relief package of Rs 51,000 crore from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bail out the debt-ridden farmers of the state.
“The need of the hour is that a relief package should be given to the farmers. There is unrest among the farmers of the state, and there has been increase in the number of suicides among the farmer community in the last seven years,” he said.
Bittu said that he would will take up the issue at the highest level, in the coming session of the Parliament and stage a protest outside and take up the issue inside the House also.
The Congress parliamentarian also asked Bathinda MP and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to do protest against the Modi government for deliberately ignoring the farmers of Punjab.
He demanded that adequate compensation should be given to the farmers affected by the white fly to the tune of Rs 40,000 per acre for the cotton affected, Rs 20,000 per family compensation should be given to the farm labour and MSP for the Basmati 1509 to be fixed at Rs 5,000 per quintal.