HARSIMRAT KAUR RESIGNS IN PROTEST AGAINST FARM BILLS
In a setback to the Modi government, Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal announced in Lok Sabha on Thursday that Harsimrat Kaur Badal would resign from the Union Cabinet in protest against the three farm bills tabled in Parliament by the Centre. He said the proposed laws would “destroy” the 50 years of hard work of successive Punjab governments and farmers to build the agriculture sector.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal has submitted her resignation as Union Minister of Food Processing Industries to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), principal advisor to Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Thursday.
Harcharan Bains, the principal advisor, said Kaur submitted her resignation soon after the party chief announced in Lok Sabha that she would quit the Union Cabinet in protest against the three farm Bills, tabled in Parliament by the Centre for passage.
Kaur was the only SAD representative in the Modi government.
The SAD on Thursday hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over the issue of farm Bills, alleging his government's “active participation” in framing the
“I HAVE RESIGNED FROM UNION CABINET IN PROTEST AGAINST ANTI-FARMER ORDINANCES AND LEGISLATION. PROUD TO STAND WITH FARMERS AS THEIR DAUGHTER & SISTER”
legislations.
Shiromani Akali Dal senior leader Daljit Singh Cheema asked the CM to issue a white paper on his “participation” in the meeting of a high-powered committee on agriculture.
“The CM has backstabbed the farming community of Punjab in the meeting of the high-powered committee set up by the Centre,” Cheema alleged while talking to the media here.
He claimed that the CM was trying to “conceal” his “participation” in framing three farm-related legislations.
The CM had rejected the Centre's claim that Punjab was taken on board before the promulgation of three farmrelated ordinances, replaced by the Bills in Parliament by the Centre.
Singh had reacted to a statement made in Parliament by Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Raosaheb Patil Danve, that the highpowered committee on agriculture had decided on the ordinances after due consideration by all member states.
Cheema said it was shocking that the CM was now “uttering blatant lies” to “hide” his involvement in supporting the ordinances.
He said not only was the CM a member of the highpowered committee which framed the ordinances but Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal also attended a meeting of the panel in Mumbai.
HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL