Even as the protesting Congress MlAs broke through the police cordon ahead the Punjab Chief Minister’s official residence in Sector 2 to raise “three significant issues” on Monday, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal reached out to them “personally”. Badal not only came out of his official residence to receive the memorandum from the delegation of Congress legislatures, but patiently listened to all their issues and demands and assured of “amicably resolving” them.
Congress MlAs, led by the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sunil Jakhar and State Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa, were protesting on Monday after the State Government failed to met the party’s demands — payment of sugarcane arrears to farmers, withdrawal of property tax, and release of payment under various social welfare scheme — in the given time.
The main opposition party, on June 16, had fixed a week’s deadline for the State Government to fulfil the demands, otherwise declared that the Congress legislative Party (ClP) would hold a dharna outside Badal’s residence on June 23. The police had already put up barricades, at a distance from the CM residence, to stop the MlAs. But, the Congress MlAs led by Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, burst through the barricades by pushing the police personnel paving way for all.
Outside Badal’s residence, the MlAs sit on the road and started shouting slogans with placards in their hands - amidst which the Chief Minister came out of his residence. It has been for the first time in the recallable past that the ClP has moved out of the four walls of the Vidhan Sabha to raise certain issues. Generally, it is the job of the Pradesh Congress Committee to carry out demonstrations, hold protests outside the House raising various issues among the people and make them aware, while the ClP’s role and function is limited to the Assembly, and mainly when the House is in session. Accepting the memorandum, Badal assured that he would soon convene a meeting with officers of various departments in light of the memorandum submitted by them before taking a final decision.
The party has been demanding that the Government should withdraw the property tax, besides clearing pending cases of Rs 183 crore payment to sugarcane farmers and releasing the compensation under various social welfare schemes, including old age pensions, Shagun, to the Scheduled Caste beneficiaries.
Badal said that he always welcomed healthy criticism “but criticism for the sake of criticism was not only unwarranted but also deplorable”. He told Jakhar that the genuine issues of his party MlAs related to the development of their assembly segments will be sorted out in consultation with the concerned MlAs. The five-time Chief Minister also promised the Congress legislators to get the issue of sub-plan component for Scheduled Castes and payment of the pre-and post-matric scholarship to the SC students thoroughly examined so that the funds allocated for the welfare of the weaker sections must reach to the eligible beneficiaries. Expressing displeasure over Congress MlAs staging a protest in front of his residence, Badal said that he would have been more happy to offer them a cup of tea had they come inside his residence to discuss these issues in a better way.
Referring to the issue of clearing the pending arrears of cane growers, Badal said he would soon get the entire matter examined at highest level to ensure its prompt payment without any further delay.
On the other hand, Jakhar said, “All through his election campaign, the Chief Minister promised to withdraw the property tax...now they have the opportunity to do so with their government at the Centre...All government’s cooperative mills have Rs 183 pending payment to be made to the sugarcane growers...In such a scenario, what would the farmers do if they won’t commit suicide under such an economic burden.”
“We have lot many issues which we would raise in the forthcoming budget session of the state assembly. We would seek time from the Speaker to raise all the issues,” he added.