Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday asked the Congress-led Punjab Government to immediately disburse Rs 3,000 per acre to incentivize farmers willing to bring in positive change by managing paddy straw. At the same time, the party declared that it would stand with the farmers and not allow the government to register cases against them.
“It is shocking that instead of offering money to the anndaata to manage paddy straw or engaging machines to deal with it free of cost, the Congress Government has shifted this responsibility to farmers and is now intimidating them with threats of cases and jail terms,” said the former minister and senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia.
Urging the farmers to unite to counter these repressive tactics, Majithia said that the Akali rank and file would stand with them and protest any move to penalize farmers. He also urged party workers to rush to the spot to show solidarity with farmers on receiving any information of prosecution of farmers.
Blaming the Congress government squarely for failing to take steps to avoid burning of paddy stubble in the State, the Akali leader said that the government had a full year to tackle the issue but aggravated it instead of trying to resolve it.
“The government first delayed paddy transplantation by 10 days through a dictatorial order which has reduced the cropping window for sowing of wheat crop and gives very little time to farmers to manage paddy straw,” he said adding that the Government placed orders for 14,000 machines like happy seeder and super straw management systems but only around 500 machines have been received on subsidized rates.
Asking the Congress government how it could victimize farmers when it had been given Rs 665 crore by the Centre to generate awareness on stubble burning and boosting use of subsidized machinery which it did not put to good use, Majithia said that the only option left for the State was to compensate farmers for the cost incurred by them in managing paddy straw.
Stating that the Congress Government only believed in hype and had zero performance to its credit, Majithia said that the Government had announced formation of a one million dollar paddy straw challenge fund one year back to come up with technology solutions to manage crop residue.
“Nothing has come out of it. Similarly, the government has failed to encourage bio-mass plants or make arrangements for paddy straw to be used as fuel in kilns and other such measures,” he added.