Delhi Congress accused the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh Government of “violating” all democratic norms by detaining Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi for over 30 hours to prevent her from visiting the family members of the farmers who were murdered at Lakhimpur Kheri.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Kumar said that the party organised demonstrations at BJP offices in all the 14 districts onTuesday to protest against the murderous attacks on the farmers.
He said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was “Kissan Virodhi”, as his sympathy to the farmers’ cause was a merely bogus as the AAP Government validated the black anti-farmer laws at a special session of the Delhi Assembly.
Addressing the media, Congress former MLA Anil Bhardwaj said that even Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States, Punjab and Chhattisgarh were also prevented from visiting Lakhimpur Kheri, which was a gross violation of the rights of a citizen.
Bhardwaj said that CM Arvind had launched the “Kissan Mitra” scheme with much fanfare but just six farmers benefited from it, which exposed the hollowness of the whole process.
The AAP leader said that CM Kejriwal has been harping on the “stubble burning” theme as the root cause of Delhi’s toxic air, as Delhi has become a virtual gas chamber due to pollution, but the burgeoning vehicular traffic and dust from broken roads and construction sites were major causes for 41 per cent of air pollution in the Capital.
He said that the Congress Government, under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, had made Delhi pollution free by introducing green fuel in public transport.
He said that due to the deterioration of public transport, as DTC is operating with a skeleton fleet, more private vehicles are plying on the roads, adding to the pollution woes of Delhiites.
“Delhi Chief Minister had spent over Rs 16 crore for the publicity of Delhi’s failed bio-decomposer usage, as only Rs 40,000 worth of decomposers was distributed. Surprisingly, farmers have shown least interest in the bio-decomposer as out of the 1500 farmers applied for it for the use in 1,935 acres of land, only 310 farmers actually availed it,” he said.