Senior Congress leader and AICC media incharge, Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday said that Dadupur-Nalvi canal project is the lifeline of northern Haryana and Congress will ensure its revival and completion on coming to power.
Haryana’s BJP Government has bartered the interests of farmers and time has come to raise a decisive battle for justice to uproot the Khattar Government from the State, said Surjewala while addressing a protest dharna organised by Haryana Kisan-Khet Mazdoor Congress, Haryana Kisan Congress and Bhartiya Kisan Union at Yamunanagar.
Thousands of farmers from Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Ambala converged at the dharna to register their vociferous protest against the decision of Khattar Government to shelve the Dadupur-Nalvi Canal Project. A number of senior party leaders including senior Ministers and legislators also joined the protest demonstration.
Giving a clarion call to protect farmer’s rights, Surjewala said that Haryana’s farmers will give a befitting reply to Khattar Government for this treachery and Congress will stand solidly behind the farmers’ struggle for their rights.
Describing the decision of BJP as another ‘tughlaki farman’, he said that close to a lakh hectare land of 225 villages of Ambala, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra will be denied irrigation in a single stroke by this decision, proving once again the apathy of BJP to the interests of poor and farmers.
Surjewala reminded that Dadupur-Nalvi canal project was started by Congress in the year 1985. In October 2005, Congress restarted the project and acquired 1019 acres of land for water recharging and irrigation through construction of Shahbad Feeder, Shahbad Distributory and Nalvi Distributary.
Nearly Rs 200 crore have been paid in compensation for the land alone, besides spending another 111.70 crore rupees in construction of these canals. After spending over Rs 300 crore in restoring the underground water table and providing irrigation, Khattar Government is seeking to destroy the entire project on account of its myopic, parochial and anti-farmer’s approach, he said.
Surjewala, an MlA from Haryana, said that Khattar Government has now become infamous for its unthought and unconsidered ‘tughlaki farmans’. Do the CM and his Government even understand that farmers will have to spend nearly Rs 40 lakh per acre in filling up the canal passing through their land, which is 58ft wide and 30ft deep.
This is equivalent to the cost of one acre. In addition, BJP Government wants the farmers to repay entire compensation along with 15% interest per annum. This would mean that farmers will have to sell their remaining land or the Government will confiscate their property, added he.
Describing the BJP Government as anti-farmers, Surjewala lamented the lack of MSP in the paddy belt, pointing out that while 25% of paddy has already been sold, government procurement has not begun.
He reminded people about the hostility of BJP Government by brutal lathicharge on farmers at Shahbad, when they were protesting against the distress fall in prices of potato to Rs 2 per kg. Abrupt slump in the price of popular and eucalyptus from Rs 1200-1400 per qtl to Rs 600-800 in BJP Government has further destroyed the income of farmers, he added.