The legislators of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party combine on Tuesday staged protest after the Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh refused to allow its adjournment motion on the farm debt waiver issue.
The government had announced the waiver but had failed to implement it, alleged SAD president Sukhbir Badal while addressing the media during adjournment of the House following sloganeering by the SAD-BJP and AAP MlAs.
He said that the farmers have become defaulters as they did not pay their bank loans, waiting for the waiver. “This is a big dhokha with the farmers. The credibility of the government is zero. The foremost duty of the government is to save farmers, but farmers are committing suicide and holding the CM responsible for that,” he said.
On the short Assembly session, he said that the government should just call “obituary reference session…There is no discussion on important issues”. “The Congress and AAP are in cahoots. That’s why Sunil Jakhar and Navjot Singh Sidhu raised the drug issue against Bikram Majithia, who has been absolved by the courts. But they did not raise the issue against Khaira,” he said.
“They are attacking us, but no issues confronting the state are being addressed. As many as 289 farmers who committed suicide were paid homage on Monday, but they are not doing anything for the farmers. Even SAP of sugarcane was raised by just Rs 10 per quintal against the Rs 30 raised by Haryana,” he said, adding that there was conflict of interest as the government wanted to favour politician-owned private sugar mills, including that of a “favourite minister” of the Chief Minister.
Sukhbir claimed that Khaira had concocted the “audio clip scandal” to deflect attention from the drug case in Fazilka.
The SAD-BJP MlAs continued with their sloganeering all through the second day of the session, Justifying the same, Sukhbir said that they were forced to protest due to the government's refusal to debate the plight of Punjab farmers and even staged a walk out from the assembly to register their protest.