Farmers' outfits locks bank officials

To protest arrest of two farmers over non-payment of dues, various farmers' outfits today "detained" officials of the Punjab Agriculture Development Bank (PADB) by locking them inside the premises in Guruharsahai and organised a massive protest outside the bank.
All the bank officials including Baljit Singh Brar, the Manager, remained "detained" in the premises throughout the day, and no customer was allowed to go inside the bank, police said.
However, the officials were allowed to come out after several hours.
The protesting farmers were demanding immediate release of two farmers including Vazir Singh of Village Chakk Shergah who had borrowed an amount of Rs 80,000 in 1996, but failed to pay back.

Another arrested farmer Jagir Singh of Village Megha Rai in Guruaharsahai had taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh in the same year. Both of them were arrested on December 22.
Bank officials said that while Vazir Singh did not pay back anything, Jagir Singh had been paying instalments till 2005 but stopped afterwards.
When contacted, Brar said that both the farmers had taken loans under Non-Farming Sector, and not for agricultural purposes.
Brar said that they had received arrest warrants of seven such persons from higher authorities, who had taken loan under NFS but failed to pay back, out of which two were arrested by the police.