Captain not happy with grain procurement arrangements
Tuesday, 28/04/2015
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=129916&boxid=57365&uid=&dat=2015-04-28
Patiala : Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh here on Monday said that the state government was not able to ensure smooth lifting of wheat grain from the market. Talking to media persons after visiting the grain markets at Patiala and Khanna, former Chief Minister said: “If the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not giving time to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, then he should better stage a dharna instead of loitering around and issuing hollow threats to seek his attention.”
Capt Amarinder Singh visited the grain markets of Patiala and Khanna along with the Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Jakhar, senior leaders Laal Singh, Preneet Kaur and MLAs Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Gurkirat Kotli, Amrik Dhillon and Hardial Singh Kamboj, and talked to farmers and asked them about the problems they were facing. He said the farmers told him that they were not getting any payment and instead farmers were given receipts of their produce on plain papers without any assurance as to when they will get the payments.
He recalled that when he was the Chief Minister he had led a dharna outside then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s office to draw his attention towards the problems in lifting of the crops by the central agencies and hike in the minimum support price. “But Badal wants to have the cake and eat it too,” he observed while pointing out that on the one hand he was conveying that he was not happy with the NDA government, on the other he was not prepared to withdraw his daughter-in-law from the Union Ministry.
Asserting that Badal had failed to convince the Central government about giving relief and relaxation to farmers in Punjab for the damaged wheat crop, he pointed out Haryana government had managed to get massive relief and hundred per cent relaxation for the damaged crops there. Capt Amarinder Singh said by trying to shift the entire blame on the Central government, Badal was trying to escape the responsibility. “Both the Central as well as the state governments are to be blamed for the current plight of farmers and Badal in no way can claim that he is not responsible,” he emphasised.
