Punjab CM announces govt jobs to kin of farmers who died during protest

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday announced that his government would provide jobs to one family member of those from the state who died during the farmers' agitation at the Delhi borders. The offer of government jobs comes in addition to the compensation of ₹5 lakh that will be given to the families.

"I have received reports that 76 farmers have passed away during the protest against three farm laws. Today, I announce that we'll provide govt job to one family member of those from Punjab who died in agitation at Delhi borders:," Singh said during the 20th edition #AskCaptain, the chief minister's online interaction campaign where he addresses the people of the state on social media.

The chief minister in his address attacked the Centre for not assuring minimum support price (MSP) and bringing the three laws without much deliberation.

The chief minister questioned the BJP government on the way it brought the new laws without consultation from the agrarian states. He asked, "Is the constitution even there? As per the constitution Schedule VII part-2, the government should have consulted the agrarian states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Uttarakhand, UP and Rajasthan first in matters related to agriculture before passing the laws."

"Why did Centre change it without discussion in Parliament? They passed it in Lok Sabha as they'd more members. In Rajya Sabha, it was passed in chaos as they sensed things can go wrong," the chief minister said.

He said, the centre needs to understand Punjab is not the only state protesting, farmers from across India have united on the Delhi border to agitate against the laws imposed by the government. "Around 80,000 farmers have gone from Punjab to protest and around the same number of farmers have also come from Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, west Uttar Pradesh and even Delhi while farmers' representatives have joined in from the southern states of India, '' Singh added.

The 11th round of talks scheduled between farmers' union and government on Friday resulted in a stalemate yet again as the farmers stood their stance on complete rollback of the three contentious laws with the government also stern on stalling the implementation for two years.

Farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020, passed by the Parliament in September 2020.