AAP slams Union minister for ‘defaming’ Punjab farmers

Addressing the media here, AAP’s state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the policy of the BJP government at the Centre was not to give anything to Punjab and only defame it. He said crop diversification was the need of the hour for Punjab

The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday slammed Union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav’s statement on stubble burning in Punjab, calling it “misleading”.

AAP’s state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the state government had submitted a draft to the central government to give ₹2,500 per acre to farmers to deal with the problem of stubble, offering to contribute ₹1,000 per acre

Addressing the media here, AAP’s state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the policy of the BJP government at the Centre was not to give anything to Punjab and only defame it. He said crop diversification was the need of the hour for Punjab. “This will help save water and check stubble burning problems in Punjab. The central government should give a special package to Punjab to encourage crop diversification,” he said.

Kang said Yadav compared Haryana and Punjab in the Parliament despite the two being different in the scale of paddy cultivation. “Paddy is cultivated in about 32 lakh hectares in Punjab whereas the area under paddy cultivation in Haryana is only 12 lakh hectares. Despite this, due to the efforts of chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the cases of stubble burning in Punjab have decreased by 56% as compared to last year,” he said.

He said the state government had submitted a draft to the central government to give ₹2,500 per acre to farmers to deal with the problem of stubble, offering to contribute ₹1,000 per acre. “The Delhi government is also ready to give ₹500 for this. The Centre has to, therefore, give only ₹1,000. Yet they are deliberately rejecting this proposal,” he claimed.