The Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday said the Punjab government should in the next seven days convene a special Assembly session to declare the entire State a notified ‘mandi’ (principal market area) and reject the Centre’s recent agriculture laws. It should also repeal its own amended APMC Act of 2017.
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The SAD core committee announced that in the event of the State government’s refusal to convene the session, the party would ‘gherao’ Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s residence. The meeting was chaired by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal here.
Harcharan Bains, principal adviser to the SAD president, said: “The ultimatum to Amarinder Singh has become necessary in view of the CM’s continued refusal to take a clear stand against the Central anti-farmer Acts, besides his stubborn refusal to declare the entire State a principal market area where the Center’s Acts would no longer be implementable.”
The SAD core committee also decided to take up the issue of early reopening of the Kartarpur corridor with the External Affairs Ministry soon to ensure Sikh pilgrims could pay obeisance at the shrine in Pakistan during the run up to the 551th ‘Parkash Purab’ of Sri Guru Nanak Dev.
The committee also expressed serious concern at the mishandling of the Hathras incident by the Uttar Pradesh government and asked it to ensure the victim’s family received justice by taking exemplary action against police officials who had cremated the body forcibly, said Mr. Bains.
Capt. Amarinder Singh said convening the session to negate the laws was his government’s prerogative and the SAD had neither the moral right nor any political standing to dictate terms to him or his government in the matter.
“It was ridiculous that the party which had boycotted the last Vidhan Sabha session to avoid voting for the resolution against the farm laws was now so desperate about convening the next session to reject those very legislations,” he said. He termed the SAD’s threat of ‘gherao’ as yet another example of the shocking double standards of the Badals who had brazenly backstabbed the farmers.
