Bikram Majithia accuses Cong of fooling farmers
AMRITSAR: Former cabinet minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Wednesday blamed the state government for the suicide of over 200 farmers within its six month tenure. Addressing media in Amritsar, Majithia said that the Congress is once again fooling farmers with false promises owing to October 11 Gurdaspur bypoll necessitated by the death of Vinod Khanna.
Lashing out at the Congress, he said that the state government failed to compensate the aggrieved families of the farmers who committed suicide.
Majithia said, “During the Punjab assembly elections, the Congress made a plethora of fake promises and managed to come to power. They are doing it again for Gurdaspur elections.” The Congress had promised to waive off the ₹90,000 crore loan but the farmers were betrayed, Majithia said. He said, the farmers were left with no option but to commit suicide after the government did not compensate them for their burnt wheat crops. Local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had announced money to the farmers from his pocket but he did not keep his words, he said. Bikram alleged that the Congress is yet to pay ₹800 crore to farmers, arthiyas and labours for the wheat procurement in May. He claimed that authorities have to pay ₹31 crore to the farmers in Amritsar. The situation has become grim as the central government has asked the state government to pay ₹1,000 crore in order to get cash credit limit (CCL) released for paddy, he said. Meanwhile, few farmers slammed the government for cheating them.