No politics in raising farmers’ woes, Amarinder tells Badal
Saturday, 16/05/2015
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PATIALA: Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday told chief minister Parkash Singh Badal that there was no politics involved in flagging the farmers’ woes when he had failed them as the chief minister.
Reacting to Badal’s charges that Amarinder was politicising the issue of losses suffered by the farmers, Amarinder said, “What politics is in it that I am pointing to your miserable failures?”
He said the damage to the standing crop was due to the nature’s fury but the damage caused to the wheat lying in the mandis was completely because of Badal’s negligence.
The former chief minister said the Reserve Bank had sanctioned a cash credit limit of `14,640 crore for the procurement of wheat well on time on April 1.
He said Badal as the chief minister, who claims to be a farmer himself, should have known that by April 10 the mandis were full to capacity.
He asked Badal as to why his government did not take appropriate measures despite having all the money at its disposal by making timely payment to the farmers and creating space for fresh arrivals. He said there was a clear forecast about the rain.
“Apparently, Badal, as usual, used the money somewhere else with the result that the payment to the farmers got delayed and the wheat got piled up in the mandis, which was damaged by the rain as it was lying in the open,” he said, asking Badal whether he would compensate the losses suffered by the farmers and the arhtiyas.
