Amidst pandemonium, the debate on crucial issues hovering around farmers’ suicide and restoration of blue cards failed to make much headway on Day 2 of the Punjab Assembly’s monsoon session on Monday.
While the Congress’ adjournment motion on farming crisis was “rejected” by the Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, the question listed regarding restoration of blue cards cancelled illegally was given extension — much to the displeasure of the opposition legislators.
However, the state government has maintained that it has asked the Deputy Commissioners to recheck their lists of blue cards holders again. It has also stated that it was ready to rectify the list of card holders in case anyone was left out by mistake.
Besides, the Speaker has fixed two-hour time to discuss the issue of farmers’ suicides on Wednesday — the next day the House will meet.
DCs ASKED TO RECHECK lISTS
At the onset of the question hour when the House met in the afternoon, Speaker Atwal announced to give further time to the Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adeish Partap Singh Kairon to reply to a query regarding restoration of blue cards cancelled illegally after their verification.
The Congress MlAs started protesting and a few of them entered the well of the House shouting slogans. They stressed that the Minister concerned should make a statement on the issue as it was of great significance as related with the entire state and not Punjab alone.
Responding, Kairon clarified that his department prepares the card on the basis of the list provided by the Deputy Commissioners (DCs), and the Food and Civil Supplies Department does not have any evaluation system which was generally presumed.
Kairon, regarding cancellation of blue cards, submitted that the DCs have already been asked to check their lists once again. “We are ready to rectify if there are any one left out wrongly,” he said. As another issue of vital importance regarding compensating the families of farmers committing suicide, Speaker once again gave “extension” to the question, raised by Congress MlA Ajaib Singh Bhatti. Speaker assured leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar that this issue will be addressed.
ASSEMBlY TO DISCUSS FARMING CRISIS
Soon after the question hour, Jakhar pointed out to the Speaker about their adjournment motion regarding farming crisis — to which Atwal insisted to take later on. After Congress’ string protest, Speaker announced the adjournment motion propose by the Congress regarding the economic crisis being faced by the State’s farmers.
He said that all the questions related with the issue will be included with this, and have been kept out of the list of questions to be taken up in the assembly.
Thirdly, the Speaker added that he had received a resolution from the state government on September 18 on the same issue and to urge the Centre to reconsider the development and agriculture policies to improve farmers’ status and implement the crop insurance scheme.
“Considering this, Congress motion has been rejected and this issue will be discussed in detail on September 23,” announced Atwal, adding that two-hour have been fixed for the same, with one hour each for both sides.