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Navjot Sidhu presses Capt Amarinder for cancellation of FIRs against farmers in fresh letter
Navjot Sidhu writes to Capt Amarinder saying that farmer unions seek cancellation of unjust and unfair FIRs registered against them due to incidents of violence during the agitation in the state
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu wrote to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday for necessary action upon the demands raised by 32 farmer unions regarding cancellation of FIRs registered against the protesting farmers during the ongoing stir and reservations about submission of fards (land record) for grain procurement.
In the letter, Sidhu, who led a three-member state Congress team at the meeting convened by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) two days ago, said the farmer unions sought the cancellation of unjust and unfair FIRs registered against them due to incidents of violence during the agitation in the state. “The Congress has supported the farmers in every endeavour since the beginning of the agitation. Our government has facilitated the protesting farmers by providing maximum support to their protests,” he wrote, advising the state government to set up a mechanism to cancel all unfair cases after considering each case on compassionate grounds.
Sidhu said that farmers saw the demand for fards (land records) to demarcate details of land ownership before procurement as ordered by the central government as unjust. The Congress leader said he also personally believed it to be unfair and against a large number of farmers who were sowing crops by taking land on lease. There was no clear land ownership as for decades, the partition of land had not happened in many parts of the state and also many land owners were now living abroad, he added. He said this was an attack on the resilient system of procurement through arhtiyas and to push the farmers away from APMC mandis towards private markets where no such records were being demanded, urging the government to fight against it.
Lauds state Congress’s
work for agri sector
Praising the work already done by Punjab Congress for agriculture and its commitment to do much more, Sidhu said that Punjab had allocated 10.9% of its budget expenditure for agriculture in 2021-22, which was much higher than average allocation of 6.3% by other states. He also made mention of power subsidy, farm loan waivers and the efficiency of government procurement. “We must do more, standing firmer on our resolution passed in Vidhan Sabha in October 2020 and not let the three black laws be implemented in our state at any cost,” he said. He also reiterated his earlier demands for procurement of pulses and oilseeds through state corporations at minimum support prices (MSPs) and investment in diversification.
