Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday requested the Vidhan Sabha Speaker to allocate two days for exclusive discussion on emergent issues concerning the farmers of Punjab even as it demanded the Congress government announce minimum support price (MSP) for vegetables and fruits.
The party’s legislative wing, which handed over a representation in this regard to Speaker Rana K.P. Singh under the leadership of Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, said that the two-day discussion besides covering the issues of the complete farm loan waiver promise, farmer suicides and the Congress government’s failure to take up the issue of repeal of the three agricultural laws with the Central government, should also spell out the way forward. The representation said that one such way ahead was announcing MSP for all vegetables and fruits immediately.
The SAD legislators, while informing the Speaker that the State was in the midst of an agrarian crisis, said that “the major reason for this is the complete loan waiver promise made by then Pradesh Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh in January 2017 at Talwandi Sabo by taking a holy oath in the name of the Gutka Sahib and the Dasam Pitah. They said Capt Amarinder Singh had clearly promised that in case the Congress forms the government in Punjab it would waive off all farmer loans—be it from government or private banks, cooperative societies or Arhatiyas. The legislators said that the Congress government’s failure to implement the loan waiver had resulted in 1,500 farmer suicides and indebtedness had increased because the people believed the chief minister and did not pay their loan installments.