india

Updated: Sep 12, 2019 05:09 IST

A farmer protesting for enhanced compensation for his land being acquired for a highway project died on Wednesday after consuming some poisonous substance at the Ram Nagar village protest site in Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana. An agitating farmer had died of heart attack last month at the same site.

The 50-year old resident of Datauli village in Charkhi dadri was first rushed to the civil hospital and later referred to the post graduate institute of medical sciences in Rohtak where he died. The autopsy will be held on Thursday. “He had been coming to the dharna site for the past 7 months”, said a farmer pleading anonymity.

The farmers of Julana and Dadri have been agitating for the past seven months seeking greater land compensation for the proposed green corridor — National Highway 152-D —that will connect Kurukshetra in Haryana to Kotputli in Rajasthan.

Former minister and Congress leader Satpal Sangwan blamed chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar for the protest-related deaths. “Farmers are dying due to CM Khattar’s useless schemes. Why has he not been able to solve farmers’ issues,” Sangwan asked.