Govt will lift every grain of paddy: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday said that State government had made elaborate arrangements to ensure that the harvest of farmers was lifted from the grain markets in a smooth and hassle free manner.

He said farmers would not be allowed to face any sort of problem while selling their produce.

Addressing a gathering during a religious congregation to mark the Gurta Gaddi Diwas of Sri Guru Angad Dev here, the Chief Minister said: “Only SAD was worried about the interests of farmers and every effort has been made to safeguard their interest at any cost”.

He said Shiromani Akali Dal would remain committed for the cause of the farmers.

Mr. Badal said it was on record that whenever farmers of the State had faced any sort of problem the SAD-BJP alliance government always came to their rescue.

Citing the examples, he said during the last more than eight years the State government has provided “free power to farmers worth Rs 28000 crore otherwise their problems would have accentuated manifolds on account of tube well bills”.

He said the State government took every step to resolve the impending sugarcane crisis by ensuring the payment of arrears to the farmers from private and cooperative sugar mills.

Mr. Badal said even now the State government has issued “funds to the tune of Rs 644 crore to compensate the farmers who have suffered huge loss due to pest attack on cotton crop in Malwa region”.

Lashing out at the Congress for the plight of farmers across the country, the Chief Minister said that the successive Congress governments at the Centre had broken the backbone of the peasantry.

Mr. Badal said due to the regressive policies of these governments, the farmers were reeling under a whopping debt of Rs 32000 crore.

The Chief Minister said that the Punjabis in general and the Sikh community in particular could never forgive the “Congress Party for its sins against Punjab”.

He alleged that the Congress governments at the Centre had “deliberately denied the state of Punjabi speaking areas, its capital Chandigarh and even its legitimate share in river waters”. PTI