Swearing in as the member of lok Sabha, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Friday said he would raise the issues of Punjab and national importance in this temple of democracy.
Jakhar, who was elected MP from Gurdaspur in October, took oath on the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament in Punjabi “in honour of the language” of his province — Punjab.
“I will take positive approach in the lok Sabha so that this platform could be used to solve the problems of common man of the country. My aim is not to do politics only but to do something for the betterment of the people of the state in general and border area residents in particular,” he said.
Commenting on the Centre’s decision to declare farmer’s tractor a commercial vehicle, Jakhar said Congress party would be firmly opposed to any kind of attempt to put more burden on the farmers.
He said that the country's farmer is not in a position to bear more financial burden. However, he demanded an exemption to tractor of the farmer from taxes to carry food grain of FCI and other government’s food grain procurement agencies, so that his income can be enhanced.
Jakhar also opposed the Centre’s efforts to bring the farmers under the ambit of income tax adding that the farmer is already facing acute crisis due to regressive policies of Modi government.
He said that any such decision of Center against the interests of the farmers will be strongly opposed in the lok Sabha. On Punjab local bodies polls, Jakhar said that for last 10 years, SAD has been synonym of oppression and tyrannical rule in the state due to which the wise people of Punjab have shown door to the Akalis during assembly polls.
“Now also, the voters of state will give a crushing defeat to SAD-BJP alliance in the local government elections,” he said. Questioning the silence of BJP leaders from state on the issues concerning the farmers, he said that the BJP leader even didn’t even raise any issue pertaining to the residents of the city. Jakhar said that the BJP leadership in the state blatantly ignored the interests of city residents during the alliance government. “Shiromani Akali Dal is now talking about contesting Haryana elections due to visible crushing defeat in Punjab,” he said.
Slamming the Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s objections regarding Bathinda AIIMS for “misleading the people”, Jakhar said that there was no question of any obstacle by the state government in the establishment of AIIMS.
“NOC in this regard is delayed due to the issue created by previous SAD-BJP government of state. The previous Government has created many hindrances in smooth execution of this project due to which it has lingered on,” he said.