PAU inefficient, will send team from Delhi: Harsimrat
MANSA: Politicians have been making a beeline to visit whitefly infested cotton fields in Mansa. After chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira met cotton growers last week, it was the turn of union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The minister visited cotton fields in Akkanwali village in Mansa on Monday.
“Punjab Agricultural University and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra have been ineffective in checking whitefly attack on the cotton fields. I will request the Union agriculture minister to send a team from Delhi to assess the reasons for whitefly attack,” she said in an interaction with farmers.
The Bathinda MP also criticised the CM for not giving enough time to farmers during his visit in two villages of Mansa.
“If the chief minister is accompanied by a security ring and fails to interact with farmers, how will he ever know the nature and extent of damage to the cotton crop," she said.
Reminding chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh of how the SAD-BJP regime was targeted during a similar whitefly attack two years ago, the union minister said Captain Amarinder Singh should catch those involved in the sale of spurious pesticide.
PM SHOULD HAVE A GIFT FOR PUNJAB ON 70 YEARS OF PARTITION
While recalling the valour and courage of Punjabis during the freedom struggle, the union minister said resolving the riparian issue and implementing the Swaminathan Commission report would be the best gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the state.
“I appeal to the PM not to deprive Punjab of its water. The second request will be to either implement Swaminathan commission report or take bold measures to bring out farmers from distress. Give Chandigarh back to Punjab as its exclusive Capital,” she added.