Bringing the Sikh issues and farmer’s crisis to the national centrestage, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday asked the Centre to end political, economic and religious discrimination against the State, Sikh community and the farmers. Deviating from the prepared script, the Chief Minister highlighted a prolonged series of policies and decisions of successive Congress Governments at the Centre, which had spelt despair; and acute and legitimate sense of grievance in the Sikh community.
He referred “sustained, vulgar and utterly unacceptable interference in the internal religious affairs of the Sikh community” in making attempts to either disband or dilute the historic Mini-religious Parliament of the Sikhs — the SGPC, or to captive it through unethical back-door entry and said the community had high hopes from the present Government especially the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Badal termed his observations as “Kadwi Baat” but “Sacchi Baat” (bitter but honest and truthful talk) and said he had not come here to share “Mann Ki Baat” of the masses as he was sure that the present Government at the Centre and especially the Prime Minister was feeling sensitive to some of his sentiments of the people. Terming that the country was severely affected by the crisis facing agriculture today, the Chief Minister impressed upon the Northern Zonal council to unanimously recommend to Government of India (GoI) to come to the rescue of the farmers in a big way.
In his address on the meeting of 27th Northern Zonal Council held at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, the Chief Minister, dwelt on the prevalent agrarian crisis, saying more than 60% population depends upon agriculture but the farming sector was passing through a tough time. He said the high cost of agriculture inputs coupled with the non-remunerative MSP had already rendered agriculture as a non-profitable venture and from the last few years, the vagaries of weather have accentuated the woes of the farming community.
Badal said, “In this dismal scenario, the Union Government must play a crucial role in bailing out the farmers.” He said there was a dip in the quality of grain of wheat as a consequence of loss in its luster because of adverse weather conditions. The Chief Minister said, “No cut should be applied to the price of the farmer’s yield on this account because he was not responsible for this adverse effect caused by natural calamity which was beyond his control.”
Batting for fixation of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of the crops as per the recommendations of renowned agri-scientist Dr MS Swaminathan, the Chief Minister said that it could only save the farmers of the country. likewise, he also sought assured marketing for all MSP crops. Badal also underscored the need for full compensation to the farmers in case of all natural calamities besides introducing crop insurance scheme for them due to loss of crops.
He also said it was the need of the hour to provide farm credit at 4% for all agriculture and allied sectors adding that animal husbandry and allied sector should also be treated at par with agriculture for income tax and bank loans. Badal also said, “Any move to shift to Direct Transfer of Urea Subsidy to farmers would harm farmers/agriculture in the long run.” Seeking the kind intervention of the Union Government for solving the contentious issue of separate Gurdwara Management Committee in Haryana, the Chief Minister said the then Haryana Congress Government had done this mischief much to the dismay of the Sikhs.
He said that Sikh Gurudwara Act 1925 was enacted to bring all the historical Gurdwaras in the then Punjab under one democratically elected body adding that this body had members from the entire country. Thus, the said Act was intended to address the need of religious community rather than territorial boundaries. Referring to the issue of voting Rights to Sehajdharis, the Chief Minister sought the intervention of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI) to amend the relevant provisions of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, through an Act of Parliament as the notification issued on October 10, 2003 by the NDA Government to delete the exception given to Sehajdaris to vote in SGPC elections was quashed by the High Court on December 20, 2011 and it was held that the right of the legislature to lay down the eligibility conditions for the voters to include or exclude a class or category.
On the issue of river cleaning, Badal also sought a mission mode project for cleaning of Satluj and Ghaggar rivers as water from almost all the States of the councils drain into these rivers. Raising another significant matter, the Chief Minister demanded that powers to transfer Environment Clearance should be delegated to State level agency irrespective of the size of the mine.
Seeking immediate intervention of the Centre to curb the Trans-Border Smuggling in Punjab, Badal apprised that the State was facing a drug menace because of its close proximity to the international narcotics route covering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. He pointed out that as the border was manned by the Central security forces therefore it was obligatory on the part of GoI to keep a strict vigil on the border to check this menace.