Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has not been administered medical aid for the last six days as the doctors have been unable to locate his veins for an intravenous drip, PTI quoted the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha as saying on Sunday.

Dallewal has been on a hunger strike at Khanauri, located on the Punjab-Haryana border, since November 26.

The strike is part of a wider campaign to press the Union government to accept farmers’ demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the rate at which the government procures crops from farmers.

On January 18, the 70-year-old Dallewal agreed to take medical aid after the Union government stated it would hold talks with the protesting farmers on February 14.

He stated, however, that he would not end his hunger strike till a legal guarantee on the minimum support price was given.

This came after the Supreme Court intervened in the matter and urged the Punjab government to take the onus of Dallewal’s health.

Besides a legal guarantee for minimum support prices, the farmers have also been demanding the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for farming in India, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a farm debt waiver, the reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and justice for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

The farmers have alleged that the Union government has not taken steps to address their demands, claiming that no talks have been held since February 2024.

Since then, they have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border, under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.

To mark a year of the protest, the farmer groups have proposed to organise unity meetings at Rajasthan’s Ratanpura on February 11, the Khanauri state border on February 12 and the Shambhu border on February 13.