Punjab Congress on Tuesday squarely held Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal responsible for the misery of State farmers with their plight worsening due to undue delay in the release of payment in mandis.
“Their plight is worsening due to undue delay in the release of payment in mandis to the farmers as the Government has failed to get remaining amount of cash credit limit (CCl) from banks, a situation that is unprecedented,” said Congress legislature Party (ClP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi.
Channi also termed Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “media stunt, just to divert the attention of the farmers and the people of Punjab from the core issue”.
“The state Government has, so far, releases payment only for about 40 per cent of the wheat procured by the state agencies. This is a reflection on the scandalous function of the Badal Government which is now not being trusted by the Centre despite the fact that the Akali Dal is the alliance partner of the BJP and part of the Government at the Centre,” said Channi.
Expressing serious concern over suicides by the farmers and farm workers and the unfortunate trend that had become unstoppable, Chani said that their harassment in the mandis was adding to this otherwise hopeless situation.
These suicides reflected the magnitude of the crisis that was confronting the farm sector and the State Government had failed to take even a single step to improve the situation, he said.
Channi pointed out that farm incomes grew the fastest from 2004-5 to 2011-12 when it was the UPA in power at the Centre that used to take good care of farm sector by appropriate hike in the minimum support prices.