SAD-BJP for debt waiver to all farmers, labourers
ALLIANCE UNDERLINES AMARINDER’S ORIGINAL PROMISE OF WAIVING ALL LOANS FROM BANKS AND PRIVATE LENDERS; SUBMITS VIDEO TOO
CHANDIGARH:A joint delegation of the SAD-BJP on Friday urged Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore to direct the Congress government to implement a complete ₹90,000-crore farm loan waiver for all farmers and ensure loans of farm labourers and Dalits are also waived.
The delegation also requested the governor to ask the state government to get all sacrilege cases that took place during the previous SAD-BJP government as well as the present Congress tenure inquired by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.
The leaders led by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP state president Vijay Sampla sought directions from the governor to register a criminal case against the Congress leaders from Patiala Harinderpal Singh ‘Harry’ Mann for instigating Congress workers to “murder” Akali leaders.
The delegation briefed the governor about the manner in which the Congress government had “deceived” farmers by refusing to honour its commitment to implement a complete loan waiver. It brought the promise of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to the notice of Badnore that all loans taken from banks and private money lenders would be waived and even submitted the video recording to him.
JAKHAR RETORTS
Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar in a press release issued there on Friday “dared” the SAD to “come clean” on its stand over waiving of farmers’ loans. Referring to the SAD’s meeting with the governor, he asked what prevented the Akalis from waiving their loans during their 10-year regime.
Recalling that the Parkash Singh Badal government had passed the ‘Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Bill, 2016’ in March 2016, Jakhar said the so-called “saviours of farmers” later preferred to dump it. “Their government even failed in constituting district and state-level agricultural debt settlement forums”. “They appointed chairmen in five of 22 districts, but that emerged as another eyewash since no staff was provided,” he added.