Congress decides to gherao ministers
Sunday, 24/04/2016
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=155172&boxid=58522&uid=&dat=2016-04-24
Amritsar : Punjab Congress Legislature party chief Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday said the Congress will start agitation in all the mandis of the state and gherao the ministers if the dues of the farmers are not cleared by next Tuesday.
Punjab Congress will start statewide gherao of all the ministers of SAD-BJP combine government, Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Charanjit Singh Channi said here. “This deaf and dumb government is playing with the sentiments of the farmers,” he said. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is just issuing statements of payments being released to the farmers but the reality on the ground is totally different, he said.
“Not single penny has been given to any farmer till today,” he alleged. Channi on Saturday visited the mandis in Ajnala and Jandial Guru alongwith the senior Congress leaders and workers. Blaming the Chief Minister for this mess, Channi said that farmers in the state have always “faced harassment” under the Akali Dal government headed by Badal who otherwise claims himself to be their champion.
“This is part of the record beginning with second term of Badal as the Chief Minister beginning 1977. The farmers have blocked roads with their produce in protest during his regime. In the latest case, they have been waiting endlessly to get their payments for their produce procured by the government agencies. It is Badal whose policies, or the lack of the same, have resulted in increasing incidence of suicides by the farmers in this once the most advanced agricultural state in the country”, he said.
He claimed that the release of cash credit limit used to be a routine affair before the beginning of every procurement season but not since Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister. Challenging Aam Aadmi Party to spell out its farm policies rather than showing mirage to the people as Badal used to do to get votes, Channi asserted that AAP had no specific agenda for Punjab and the effort has been to cash upon emotions of the people that the Akali Dal has been doing for years.
