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Punjab must review meagre relief for cotton growers: Sukhbir
Sukhbir added that even farm labourers needed better treatment after the loss to the cotton crop; also, he said Punjab CM Channi’s failure to react to Jagdish Tytler’s appointment to a top Congress panel was unfortunate
Mohali Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday asked chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi to review the meagre compensation offered to cotton growers, whose entire crop had been destroyed by Pink Bollworm attack.
“Farmers have been demanding a compensation of ₹50,000 per acre, but the Congress government is offering a measly compensation of only ₹2,000 for up to 35% crop damage and ₹5,400 for up to 75% crop damage. The officials also want to ensure they put maximum farmers in this category. This effectively means that even a meagre compensation of ₹12,000 per acre for 100% crop damage will not be available to farmers,” Sukhbir, in town for a road show, from the Siswan T-point to the Marble Market in Mullanpur along with party candidate from Kharar Ranjit Singh Gill. Prem Singh Chandumajra accompanied him.
Sukhbir also criticised Channi for failing to even register a protest against the appointment of 1984 genocide perpetrator Jagdish Tytler to a top Congress panel.
Asserting that the Congress government had not only back-stabbed cotton farmers, Sukhbir alleged that even farm labourers had been cheated. “The government has defrauded farm labourers by offering them 10% of the total compensation award. No frame work has been made for distribution of this award. We reject this injustice with farm labourers and demand that they be given flat compensation of ₹15,000 per acre.”
The SAD president also asked the CM to leave photo-ops and start working for the welfare of the people. “You have only two months at your disposal. You should use them to mitigate the suffering of the people and implement the promises made by your party. Instead of doing this, you are solely indulging in publicity gimmicks.”
Interacting with a cross-section of people in Kharar, Sukhbir said it was astonishing that in spite of proximity to Chandigarh, the town did not have all modern amenities. In Nayagaon, he announced that it would be developed on the pattern of New Chandigarh by making it a part of the new township, if the SAD-BSP alliance came to power.
