Dubbing the BJP-led Central Government’s Rs 6,000 per annum assured income for the farmers as “too late” and “not enough”, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday announced to meet the Union Finance Minister urging him to double the amount, while also ringing the farm labourers under the scheme.
Besides, the party has also decided to ask the Congress-led Punjab Government to make a similar provision for the state farmers.
The decisions were taken during the party’s core committee meeting, held on Sunday at party headquarters in Chandigarh under the leadership of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal.
The party described the decision of giving direct income support of Rs 6,000 per annum to every farmer owning up to two hectares of land as “a good beginning symbolising the government's concern for the beleaguered peasantry in the country”.
However, at the meeting, most of the leaders were of the view that the Centre’s decision for the beleaguered farming community has come “too late” and that too was “not enough”. The core group’s meeting decided that the party would appeal to the Central Government to hike the amount to Rs 12,000.
“The core committee also decided to urge the government to extend the assured income scheme to the farm labourers considering the hardships being faced by both the segments,” said SAD chief Sukhbir.
He said that a delegation of party MPs and senior leaders would meet the Union Finance Minister to urge him to increase the size of the direct income support for farmers and to extend the scheme to cover farm labourers also. “We hope that our demand would be accommodated in the regular budget,” he said.
Sukhbir said that the party’s core panel has also asked the Congress Government in Punjab to “fulfill its own moral obligations towards the state farmers and give a matching amount equivalent to the amount given by the Centre as direct income support to every farmer as well farm labourer in the state”.
The core committee also appreciated the BJP-led NDA Government for announcing major relief measures for the poor and middle class in the country with “bold budgetary decisions” like increasing the limit of personal income tax to Rs five lakhs which will benefit three crore out of total accesses of five crore.
The panel also lauded Rs 3,000 per month pension to 10 crore workers from the unorganized sector, doubling of exemption in GST from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh and increase in salaries of ASHA and Anganwadi workers by one-and-a-half times.
Appreciating the Central Government’s decision of 10 percent reservation to economically backward upper caste, Sukhbir said that this reservation was made available by government without affecting the existing reservation which is being provided to other sections of the society since long.
LASHES OUT AT CONGRESS
Lashing out at the Congress party, Sukhbir said that the ruling party has curtailed the people’s democratic rights in its tenure.
“The Congress party and its government in the state have murdered democracy in the state, not allowing free and fair election in the state,” said Sukhbir while citing a case in point of the recently-concluded Panchayat elections alleging that the nomination papers of many candidates of the opposition parties were arbitrarily rejected.
He came down heavily on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for “virtually abandoning the people of the state and going back on all the commitments made to them before the assembly poll”. There was a complete administrative paralysis in the State, he said.