Sukhbir: SAD to reject anti-farmer laws after coming to power
CHANDIGARH : Shiromani Akali Dal ( SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday said that his party will totally reject and block the implementation of the Centre’s “anti- farmer” laws in Punjab, declare the entire state a principal market area, and repeal the APMC Act, 2017, on coming to power in the state.
Sukhbir accused chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh of playing fraud on the farmers. “He ( CM) first thrust the bill before us just minutes before it was taken up, giving no time for studying the bills just as he had done with the river waters bill in 2004, which has brought no result for Punjab. The bills totally contradicted the resolution which we had passed,” the SAD chief said at a press conference after the core committee meeting.
The SAD chief said the farmers want the government to ensure MSP for all 22 crops for which the Centre declare the minimum support price. “We have been demanding that the assured marketing at MSP regime must continue and also expanded to cover all the 22 listed crops,” he said. He also blasted the chief minister for telling brazen lies about farmers in broad daylight, and on the sacred floor of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
“Amarinder said he had already discussed everything about the issue with the farmers’ organisations before bringing the bills to the House, but they dismissed these meaningless. The CM should respond to the derogatory and dismissive description of his bills by these organizations,” he added.
Sukhbir further alleged a “deep rooted and devious conspiracy” between the BJP and the CM against the farmers. They want to weaken the intensity of this movement by uprooting it from its base in the country’s most agrarian state ( Punjab) as it suits both Amarinder and Modi that the agitation is shifted away from where the farmers are the strongest, he claimed. Referring to the chief minister’s references to his willingness to resign if the Centre did not agree to the farmers’ demands, Badal said, “Those who are sincere about resigning to fight for the farmers have already resigned, while Captain sahib is still merely boasting”.