The Punjab Congress on Tuesday asked Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to immediately call an “emergency session” of the State Assembly and lead an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the farmers’ issue.
Making demand of emergency session, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Partap Singh Bajwa also asked the Chief Minister to lead an all-party delegation to the PM “to take up the issues agitating the farmers leading to increasing incidence of suicides”.
Stating that the farmers’ issues concern the entire country, Bajwa said, “Punjabi farmers played a stellar role in providing food security to the country but the tragedy is that, in this food bowl of the country, they are forced to commit suicide due to deepening crisis in the farm sector.”
Demanding crop loan waiver for the farmers, Bajwa added, “The families of farmers who had committed suicide have been waiting for years for compensation and the official apathy and the delay defeated the very purpose of providing some relief to the bereaved family.”
“The Government has literally failed to give Rs3 lakh compensation to the farmers who committed suicide due to agrarian crises,” he said while demanding Rs25,000 compensation for the farmers who have been into losses for cotton crop in Malwa.
Bajwa said that in the last five years, more than 3.50 lakh farmers have committed suicide across the country.
“We also demand a package for the debt ridden farmers of the State on the lines of the one given by UPA earlier,” the Punjab Congress chief said.
He demanded a waiver of crop loan and introduction of the Money laundering Act in Punjab, besides interest free loan to the farmers on the pattern of Haryana Government.
“It is understandable that the State Government can’t deal with the problem that needs a comprehensive approach,” he said adding that the state government must initiate steps that were within its powers to resolve the issue.
PPCC chief added, “The rest should be taken care of by the Union Government which should evolve a comprehensive agrarian policy keeping in view different situation in each State.”