Akali Dal ditched farmers on land bill amendments: Bajwa

Wednesday, 05/08/2015

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MANSA: Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa slammed chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday for ditching the farmers on the proposed amendments to the land acquisition bill on which the Union government has now backtracked.

Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa at the bhog ceremony of Manikaran bus accident victims in Mansa on Tuesday.

Bajwa was here to attend the bhog ceremony of the victims of the Manikaran bus tragedy at Joga village. He described the backtracking by the Modi government as a first major victory for the Congress, which had maintained consistent pressure on the issue under Rahul Gandhi.

Bajwa said it was the United Progressive Alliance-2 that had adopted the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act in 2013 to protect the interests of the farmers, which was also supported by the BJP at that time. However, after coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in issuing an ordinance to amend the Act to remove all pro-farmer clauses under pressure from the corporates that had funded the BJP poll campaign.

Interacting with the bereaved families, he assured them that very soon he, with party leader Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, would lead a delegation to meet the CM and demand compensation to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the accident.

He demanded that the victims’ families should be given compensation amounting to `10 lakh each. He said he would also take up the matter with Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh that the already announced compensation be released immediately and efforts be made to search bodies on a war footing.

On the Gurdaspur terror strike, he criticised the state government for not taking up the border security issue seriously. “The CM and the deputy CM should curtail policemen on their own security and focus on strengthening the police force in the state,” he said.

MEETS NEW SECRETARY IN PATIALA
PATIALA: En route to Mansa, Bajwa stopped at Patiala for some time and met party workers seen not to be aligned with the Amarinder camp. He also met Narinder Lalli, a former Patiala municipal corporation councillor he has elevated to the post of a Congress secretary. Lalli is known to be at odds with Amarinder and is thus being ‘cultivated’ by Bajwa.

“This is a just a courtesy visit, as Lalli’s mother is ill,” said Bajwa, while slamming the Akalis for the poor law and order situation and politicisation of the police force. Bajwa refused to answer any questions from reports on politics, but claimed to have taken feedback from Lalli on how to strengthen the party in the district.