Ashok Verma
Mansa, May 03, 2020: Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said severe shortage of gunny bags was affecting lifting of wheat in several Mandis of this district besides clogging them and creating a health hazard.
The union minister, who visited the Bareta Mandi and interacted with farmers and commission agents, also spoke to the Deputy Commissioner and asked him to speed up the lifting of wheat. She also pulled up Mandi officials for not making proper sanitization arrangements for visitors.
She also distributed hand sanitizer bottles to all those present in the Mandi.
Replying to media queries, Mrs. Badal said besides Rs 112 crore received under the NHM for tackling COVID -19, Punjab had also received Rs 247 crore on account of first instalment towards State Disaster Management Fund for the current year recently. She said besides this the State had Rs 6,000 crore accumulated with it under the Disaster Management head. She said despite having these funds as well as receiving Rs 4,000 crore on account of GST compensation the State government was claiming that it had not received any funds from the centre. “The truth is that the State has not only received these funds but has also not spent them to mitigate the suffering of the people”.
Speaking about the Sri Hazur Sahib pilgrims, Mrs. Badal said they are our brothers and sisters. “My heart goes out at the manner in which they are being mistreated. Repeated videos have shown that the State government has put up the pilgrims in quarantine facilities which do not even have basic facilities. This is all a result of cheap politics. The SGPC has offered its sarai to the pilgrims but the government is in the midst of a a credit war and did not take up the offer deliberately. This has resulted in increased suffering to the pilgrims. I appeal to the government to leave partisan politics and transfer all the pilgrims to SGPC sarai so that they can be looked after properly”
Mrs. Badal also made it clear that she had approached the Home minister and requested for repatriation of the pilgrims as her bounden duty. “They are our brother and sisters. It was our duty to unite them with their families in Punjab. However the Punjab government botched up the repatriation operation causing pain and suffering to the pilgrims”.
Later, the Union minister provided santizer bottles and masks prepared by Nanhi Chhaan to Budhlada NGOs for further distribution among masses.
Before leaving she also handed over sanitizers and masks to police personnel.