Welcoming the “bold decision” by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for bringing legislation to restore lands of aggrieved Sikh farmers of Haryana, Punjab Congress on Thursday dared CM Parkash Singh Badal to seek a similar law from his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi to prevent eviction of Sikh families from there.
PPCC maintained that Modi was only shedding crocodile tears and making false promises, on forcible eviction of Sikh farmers from Gujarat, despite the fact that unlike Haryana, the Sikh farmers have won their case from Gujarat HC. “It is the draconian Modi Government that has appealed against the relief to Sikh farmers in the Supreme Court,” added the Press statement.
Haryana, a day before, has brought the legislation — The Punjab Village Common lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment Bill, 2013 — in the Vidhan Sabha ensuring that no Sikh farmer would be displaced from the State. Notably, thousands of Sikh families belonging to 26 villages of Pehowa and Ghula areas, were facing a similar situation as that of Gujarat.
The lease of the land of these Sikh farmers is expired since 1972, and that these farmers had even lost their case right up till the Supreme Court. Hooda has, in fact, by bringing the said legislation has extended the lease of all such farmers by another 99 years.“Now that Haryana CM has shown the way, all Modi needs to do is to bring an Amendment Bill to The Bombay lands and Tenancy Act, 1948, which is threatening the existence of Sikh farmers in Gujarat. The other option before the Modi is to simply withdraw its Special leave Petition from the SC, allowing the High Court order favouring the Sikh farmers to become operative,” said PPCC spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira.
“If Modi now fails to do any of these it would be presumed that he is purposely evicting the Sikh farmers from Gujarat”, he added.