Amrit Pal Brar
Bathinda, May 3 – Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to apologize to the families of 1,500 farmers who committed suicide after he backstabbed them by refusing to implement the promised complete loan waiver as well as reneging on his commitment to give Rs 10 lakh compensation and a government job to the families of the suicide victims.
Addressing a meeting at Bangi Nihalsinghwala in Talwandi Sabo, Mrs Badal said it was Capt Amarinder Singh’s duty as head of state to fulfill the promise made to the farmers. “Raja Sahib promised to waive off all loans, be they be from nationalized banks, cooperative banks or those of private money lenders. He also committed to award Rs ten lakh compensation and a government job to each suicide victim family. Now that he has reneged on both these commitments he should publically apologize to the victim families for lying to them and deceiving them to secure their votes in the 2017 assembly elections”.
Mrs Badal said though the Congress government had made it clear to farmers that it will not keep its word “I request the chief minister in all humility to at least extend Rs ten lakh to the suicide victim families immediately as a humanitarian gesture. It is difficult to see the suffering of these families as most of them do not have any source of livelihood. No government should be so insensitive to the suffering of its people”.
The Bathinda mp also disclosed that she had been receiving complaints from farmers that they continued to receive kurki (recovery) notices. She held aloft a notice received by Mahinder Singh of Jaisinghwala village, saying Mahender had taken a loan of Rs 75,000 from a cooperative bank. “Believing the ‘karja kurki khatam fasal ki poori rakam’ promise of Capt Amarinder this farmer like lakhs of others stopped paying loan installments. Now the government has sent a notice to him as it has to a few thousand others to seize his property to recover the loan. We will not allow this to happen”, she assured the farmer saying the SAD would oppose any attempt to initiate ‘kurki’ proceedings against farmers.
Stating that farmers were worst hit under Congress rule, Mrs Badal said sugarcane farmers were first not given adequate bonus on the State Assured Price (SAP) and then their dues were withheld. She said potato farmers witnessed their potatoes rotting in the field with the State government refusing to intervene and offer any package to them. “Farmers have not even received award for crop damage they suffered one year back”, she added.