Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to end playing a fixed match by purposely delaying bringing in legislation to negate the Agri laws which were detrimental to the future of the farmers of Punjab by rejecting an appeal made in this context by all farm organization of the State.
Stating that there was more to the refusal, Sukhbir said: “Capt Amarinder is again asking for time to bring the legislation despite the fact that SAD was the first to make this demand more than 10 days back. We had asked the Chief Minister to call a special session and bring in legislation making the entire State a single market yard. The farm organisations are also making a similar demand.”
Sukhbir said in keeping with the fixed match the Chief Minister was playing on the issue, the latter outrightly rejected the SAD’s suggestion around one week back. “Subsequently, Capt Amarinder came under pressure following SAD’s historic Kisan March and baulked under the weight of the ‘rosh’ of the farmers and announced he would call a special session after all. “Now when the farmer organizations have tried to pin him down, he is again trying to escape by rejecting the ample time of one week given to him by the farm organisations,” he added.
All this points to the fact that the Chief Minister is simply playing out a fixed match and has no interest whatsoever in ensuring the rights of farmers of the State are protected at the earliest”.
Sukhbir also advised the Chief Minister to understand the pain and anguish of the annadaata and not let extraneous concerns come in the way of doing justice to their cause.
SAD chief announced that SAD, on its part, would force the Chief Minister to listen to the voice of the farmers. “We will compel this anti-farmer government to not only repeal its amended APMC Act of 2017 but also bring in legislation to make the entire State one ‘Mandi’ so that the three Agri marketing laws are no longer applicable in Punjab,” he added.