Cong leader lambasts Centre

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 5

Attacking the SAD-BJP alliance and the Central Government’s recent programme to credit Rs 6,000 per annum, into the account of each poor farmer, Congress leader Nimisha Mehta termed it as a ‘kisan apmaan’ scheme rather than ‘Kisan Samman scheme.

“As a contribution of mere Rs 500 per month and Rs 16.43 a day is a poor joke that the Narendra Modi-led Central Government had cracked with the farming community. Even a daily wager earns Rs 350 a day and through this act of compensating farmers by only Rs 16.43 a day, the BJP government has shown how well it wishes for the ‘anndaata’ of India,” he said.

Nimisha said Badals who claim to be saviours of farmers had smartly put a silly question to merely double this joke of Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000.

Nimisha said Sukhbir Badal must answer as to how could an amount of Rs 16.43 prove to be of any help to farmers in the state.

She said: “Even 1 kg of wheat flour costs Rs 25 and with mere Rs 16.43 a day, a farmer can buy only 250 ml of diesel. If a farmer has to utilise diesel to irrigate one-acre land, then it takes at least 12 litres of diesel a day to irrigate the paddy field. Hence, what help is the Centre doing by merely making a fool of the farmers?”

Nimisha said Sukhbir and his party had been questioning the Rs 2-lakh debt relief being provided to farmers by the Congress government in the state but now, Sukhbir must come out and tell whether Rs 2 lakh is a bigger amount or Rs 6,000.

“Badals are sacrificing the rights of the state farmers and playing cheap tricks in the issue to save the ministerial berth of Badal family’s bahu Harsimrat Kaur. Had Badals been any serious about the farmers it would have at least done away with the BJP alliance and walked out of it, but their actions prove that they had more lust for power and interests of Punjabis stand nowhere for them,” the Congress leader said.