Cong to take up farmer suicides, other key issues in House session
Wednesday, 03/02/2016
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CHANDIGARH: The Congress will take up the “deteriorating” law and order, increase in number of farmer suicides and free flow of drugs in the state in the forthcoming Punjab assembly session.
Announcing this, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi said Congress legislators would take the government head on in the coming budget session and approach the Vidhan Sabha speaker to give the opposition more time to discuss the key issues pertaining to the state.
He said the issues of stopping of release of welfare schemes, increase in unemployment and closure of industry and financial bankruptcy in the state would also be raised.
Channi, after meeting Congress MLAs, demanded that the session be of minimum 25 days so that the burning issues could be taken up and the people of Punjab made aware of them.
The meeting slammed the Punjab government for “not releasing funds” under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) and demanded that MNREGA workers be given permanent employment and the backlog of payments should be immediately cleared.
It said the 100-day employment should be implemented in true spirit. The Congress promised its total implementation in Punjab after coming to power in 2017.
A resolution was passed against the SAD-BJP government for “denying subsidised atta daal” to people for the past several months.
The meeting expressed concern over the “inefficient and insensitive” approach of the state government in disbursal of compensation to the families of the distressed farmers and farm workers who committed suicide.
The meeting referred to the increasing incidence of such suicides, especially during the last two years, and held the Parkash Singh Badal government responsible for creating such a situation. The Congress Legislature Party demanded immediate relief to such families.
The Congress also demanded a financial package for debt relief to farmers and farm labourers. It said the compensation being given to the victims should be increased from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
The Congress Legislature Party condemned the “continuous deterioration in the law and order situation” in the state in general and the atrocities against Dalits in particular.
The Congress MLAs also condoled the deaths of the victims of the Behbal Kalan firing, student who committed suicide in Hyderabad, besides the farmers and farm labourers who committed suicide in the recent past.
The legislators present in the meeting were Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Navtej Cheema, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Kulji tN agra, Tar loch an Soondh, Rakes hPandey, Randeep Singh, Sham Sunder Arora, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Balbir Sidhu, Guriqbal Kaur, Karan Brar, Ajaib Singh B hat ti, G ur char an Singh Boparai and Hardial Singh Kamboj.