The indefinite morcha being staged by farmers outside the residence of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan in his native Sandhwan village entered its third consecutive day on Friday, with more protesters arriving from Faridkot and neighbouring districts to join the sit-in led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur).The dharna at the Speaker’s residence is part of a wider agitation that has already shut down operations at 13 branches of the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank, commonly known as Land Mortgage Banks, across the state for more than four months, with farmers camping outside these branches as well.At the heart of the protest is the farmers’ allegation that the banks, despite securing agricultural land as collateral against loans, also collect signed blank cheques from borrowers — a practice the protesters claim violates Reserve Bank of India guidelines.Farmer leaders alleged that these cheques are deliberately bounced to enable proceedings under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, exposing defaulting farmers to arrest warrants and possible jail terms.Calling this “double security” against a single loan, the protesters said the practice amounted to institutional harassment, and declared they would not vacate either the Speaker’s residence or the 13 bank branches until every blank cheque held by the authorities was returned to the borrowers concerned.The demonstrators also invoked the case of two farmer brothers from Hari Nau village in Kotkapura who died by suicide, allegedly under the weight of mounting debt, by jumping in front of a train.Farmer leaders claimed that Speaker Sandhwan had personally assured the bereaved family of financial assistance and government support at the time, but said no relief had materialised since.Among their other demands, the protesters sought compensation for tractors, equipment and goods damaged during the farmers’ agitation at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders, along with a comprehensive waiver of outstanding agricultural loans across the state.Addressing the gathering, farmer leader Baldev Singh said the union would not withdraw the morcha until all its demands were met in full.”Our farmers are sitting firmly at this pakka morcha and outside the 13 agriculture development bank branches. If the Punjab government and bank authorities continue to ignore our rightful demands, we will be forced to escalate our movement by blocking national highways and railway tracks across the state,” he said.