Under attack for handing out compensation cheques of as less as Rs10 to Rs100 to the victim of whitefly attack on cotton crops, the Punjab Government on Monday announced Rs600 crore compensation to the state’s cotton cultivators.
Announcing this while addressing the gathering during political conference at Chapar Mela on Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal reiterated the State Government’s firm commitment to safeguard the interests of state’s farming community.
“I am well aware about the agony faced by the farming community due to whopping loss suffered by them on account of pest attack for which I have asked the officers last midnight to disburse Rs600 crore so that farmers could be bailed out during this hour of crisis,” he said.
Badal said that a “gigantic operation” would be launched by the state Government to distribute this relief amongst the affected farmers. “We are firmly behind the hard working and resilient farmers of the state to help them in this hour of crisis,” he said.
Chief Minister said that it was on record that whenever our farmers had faced any sort of problem, the SAD-BJP alliance Government has came to their rescue. Citing examples, he said that during last more than eight years, the State Government has provided free power to farmers worth Rs28,000 crore otherwise their problems would have accentuated manifold on account of tube well bills.
“likewise, when farmers’ wheat crop was damaged due to untimely rains in April 2015, the state Government ensured that every grain was lifted. In the same, the state Government took every step to resolve impending sugarcane crisis by ensuring payment of arrears to the farmers from private and cooperative sugar mills,”
he listed.
lashing out at the Congress party for farmers’ plight across the country, Badal said that the successive Congress Governments at the Centre had broken the backbone of the peasantry, and farmers were reeling under a whopping debt of Rs32,000 crore.
The Chief Minister said that the Punjabis in general and Sikh community in particular could never forgive the Congress party for its anti-Punjab stance. “The Sikh community would never pardon Congress for its sins like Operation Bluestar and 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in which several innocents Sikhs were brutally murdered at the behest of Congress leaders,” he said.
‘SAD WOUlD NEVER PART WAYS WITH BJP’
Badal, interacting with the media persons, said that the SAD-BJP alliance was everlasting and firm. “Alliance with BJP is very strong and Akali Dal could not even think of breaking it….We are very clear on this issue that Akali Dal will never part ways from BJP at any cost,” he said..
‘PUNJAB NOT HAVING SINGlE DROP OF WATER FOR ANY STATE’
CM, reacting to another query, made it clear that Punjab was not having a single drop of surplus water for any state. “There is hardly any question of giving water to some other state to cater its needs,” said Badal.