Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday targeted the SAD-BJP government on the issues concerning the state peasantry, including the farmers’ suicides, and its decision to scrap crop insurance scheme.
The party accused the Parkash Singh Badal led government for losing faith and confidence of peasantry by its failure to implement the much-hyped Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme in Punjab. At the same time, it condemned the government for tampering with the statistics of farmers’ suicides in the state, while advocating the implementation of welfare schemes for the community.
“By scrapping the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna’, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal cannot shred of his responsibility towards farmers, who are being forced to take the extreme step of suicides due to acute financial debt,” said AAP’s spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira and party’s manifesto committee head Kanwar Sandhu, in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“If the existing scheme was not conducive for Punjab’s farmers, then why the SAD, which claims to be an oldest and strongest ally in NDA, allowed to get it approved by Prime Minister Narendra ModiIJ Was SAD’s representative in Union Cabinet Harsimrat Kaur Badal was sleeping, when the scheme was approvedIJ Was it not must for SAD to force amendments in the existing scheme to get it made conducive for PunjabIJ” they asked.
AAP leaders said that in case the Badals would have been serious to protect the interests of Punjab farmers, they could have warned the NDA to snap its political ties with the BJP and after no heed was given to their grievances, they should have opted out of Union Government to perform the role of opposition.
“Badal owes an explanation to farmers that after rejecting the Centre’s Crop Insurance Scheme. What he has planned for the implementation of better scheme in Punjab,” they said while suggesting that five times Chief Minister must take lessons from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had extended compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre to Delhi’s farmers, when their crop was damaged due to natural calamity.
Meanwhile, the party’s farmers’ wing’s head Captain GS Kang and farmers’ leader Ehbab Singh Grewal called for implementation of welfare schemes for the farmers, so that they could be stopped from taking the extreme step of suicide.
They said that number of suicides by farmers is increasing day-by-day and Akali Government instead of admitting the fact, busy in tampering with the data of suicides committed by farmers in Punjab, to give wrong projection at national level.
“In Sangrur and Mansa districts only, 30 farmers have taken the extreme step of suicides in the last six months,” Kang said adding that it could be an eye opening for Akalis to assess the poor plight of farmers due to their (Akalis) wrong agriculture policies.
On one hand, Modi Government is waiving off loans worth crores of rupees given to the corporate giants like Ambanis and Adanis, but on the other hand, giving no heed to the genuine grievances of peasantry, Grewal said while demanding immediate waiver of agriculture loans to save lives of small and marginal farmers.
“In spite of the announcement made, no promised financial help is being provided to the families of those farmers who committed suicide,” Grewal said advocating the dire need of a comprehensive agriculture policy for the welfare of farmers.
Even the politicians and officials, who were involved in the supply of spurious pesticide should also be taken to task, so that nobody in future could dare to indulge in such a shameful and inhuman act, he said.