Badal should demand debt waiver for farmers: Channi

Friday, 22/01/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=149005&boxid=59653&uid=&dat=2016-01-22

Patiala : Charanjit Singh Channi, Leader of Opposition, on Thursday demanded that entire debt of the farmers and farm workers, both institutional and non-institutional, must be waived off by the government and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should seek special package for this purpose from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Akali Dal was in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The demand was raised after a party delegation including MLAs Preneet Kaur and Hardyal Singh Kamboj, Madan Lal Jalalpur visited the family of the late farmer Jaswant Singh, 65, of Gajisalar village near Samana in Patiala district, who recently committed suicide hours before the marriage of his daughter Lakhvinder Kaur.

The delegation handed over Rs 2 lakh as token help to Lakhvinder Kaur and her brother Sarjan Singh, both children of the late Jaswant Singh. The delegation demanded government job for one member of the bereaved family. Preneet Kaur said besides waiving entire debt, the government must ensure government job to a member of the family of the distressed farmer taking such extreme step.

Channi described the situation as alarming with such tragedies being reported almost every other day, especially in the cotton belt in the Malwa region. He urged Badal to approach Modi for special package for this state to provide relief to the farmers and farm workers as it was Punjab that had played pioneering role in providing food security to the country.

Now, Badal could not shift blame on the Centre as Akali Dal was part of the alliance at the Centre with Harsimrat Kaur Badal from this party being part of the Modi cabinet.

The Congress also pressed for enhancement of Rs 3 lakh compensation announced by the Punjab government to Rs 5 lakh besides government job to a member of the bereaved family as it was the moral responsibility of the government to protect the farming community.

Channi pointed out there was a big discrepancy between the government and the survey conducted by the universities in the State on the number of farmers having committed suicides. While the government had admitted to only about 80 suicides, the universities had put the figure at about 3,000 during the last four years.

He said farming should be made profitable and prices of the farm produce fixed on the formula recommended by Dr MS Swaminathan to ensure 50 per cent profit to the farmers over and above the cost of production. He berated the Modi government for backtracking from the poll promise of implementing Swaminathan Committee recommendations.

Later, Channi also participated in the dharna organised by the unemployed line men in front of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) office in Patiala. Addressing the dharna, Channi said that this government’s attitude towards the unemployed linemen who are sitting in dDharna for the last 15 days showed their indifferent attitude. He assured them that the Congress party would take up this issue in the coming Vidhan Sabha session.