Will launch statewide stir if power subsidy goes, says SAD

CHANDIGARH : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday resolved to launch state-wide protests, in case the Captain Amarinder Singh government in Punjab scraps free power to agriculture tubwells. No schedule for protest was announced. In 1997, the SAD-BJP government had introduced free power for all tube wells across Punjab.

“We will not let the government impose bills on tubewells. If that happens, the government will have to face the anger of people of Punjab,” SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said in the party’s core committee meeting.

On Wednesday, the state cabinet took an in-principle decision saying that it will provide direct benefit transfer (DBT) of power subsidy to farmers for using tubewells. The decision will put an end to existing system of giving in advance a lump sum amount to PSPCL for electricity consumed by 14 lakh tubewells in the state.

The issue has given the Akalis a chance to touch base with the state peasantry, its major vote bank, which had distanced itself from the SAD, after series of incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015. The then Akali-BJP government in the state was blamed for the desecrations. By resorting to the party’s old style of agitation politics, SAD see a chance to mobilise its workers, and rejuvenate its beleaguered support base in rural Punjab.

Dismissing a statement by Amarinder that the cabinet had never contemplated any move to scrap the free power facility

for farmers and replace it with a direct benefit transfer scheme (DBT), the core committee resolved, “If the Congress government tries to force the decision on farmers through the backdoor under the pretext of cash subsidy to farmers, the SAD will not remain a mute witness to it,” it said.

“Initially, Punjab ministers confirmed the decision of imposing bills on tubewells. When when we declared to launch an agitation against the government, the CM and the state government panicked and felt compelled to deny the move,” Sukhbir told the core committee.

The committee also condemned the government for allowing 80% increase in fee in medical colleges and sought its withdrawal. It also condoled the passing away of former MP Gurdas Singh Badal.

The committee sought a package for the poor from the state government.