Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded that “MSP and assured marketing on 22 crops by the Punjab Govt must be legislated into a legal guarantee by the Punjab government during the forthcoming assembly session beginning March 1.
“Giving MSP and Assured Marketing on 22 crops “within 24 hours of forming AAP govt”, was a guarantee given by none other than Bhagwant Mann himself in the run up to the February 2022 poll. If the Chief Minister brings a legislation to make this guarantee legal, then the SAD will wholeheartedly support that legislation and I will personally go over and thank him for this,” said Badal in a statement here .
Sukhbir Badal also appealed to the centre to fulfill the assurances given to farmers more than two years back when they withdrew the Kisan Andolan. He also urged the centre to resume talks with the farmer unions and resolve the current imbroglio through dialogue.
Sukhbir S Badal made these remarks here during his day long tour of Lambi assembly constituency today where he held public meetings in 11 villages. He listened to the grievances of villagers and appealed to them to differentiate between own people and outsiders. He also assured to serve the constituency with the same spirit as former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Sukhbir Badal categorically held the Punjab government, especially Bhagwant Mann “squarely responsible for the murder of the innocent young boy, Shubhkaran Singh. “Why has a murder case not been registered so far by the Punjab government for Shubhkaran’s brutal killing? Why is “Punjab da Puttar” silent on the killing of the true son of Punjabs soil by outsiders? Whose permission is Bhagwant Mann waiting for to book the guilty?” asked the SAD president.
Badal also reminded the chief minister of his own loud claims that no police personnel could open fire without the direct orders of the Chief Minister. “Time has come for you to live up to your words and book the man who alone in your opinion could have ordered the police to fire at farmers, killing a young Punjabi farmer inside your own state, ” said the former Deputy Chief Minister. Badal said Shubhkaran’s “ assassination” could have been prevented by the Chief Minister if he had listened to us and other Opposition parties who “had been crying aloud for the past six days asking Bhagwant Mann to intervene to stop the Haryana government from invading Punjab to attack our farmers on Punjab soil. Shubhkaran would still have been with us if Bhagwant Mann had not acted with stubborn arrogance.” Badal accused the Chief Minister of playing a double-game with the farmers, pretending to be their friend while actually acting as hidden agent of the Centre & Haryana government. “Bhagwant Mann kept distracting and confusing the farmers by giving false hopes to them. He was merely providing time to the Haryana government to fortify their borders against the farmers. I am sad that the innocent farmers walked into his trap”, he added.