AAP govt adding to farmers’ woes by enforcing power cuts, says Sukhbir Badal

PTI

Chandigarh, September 7

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday alleged that the AAP dispensation in Punjab is adding to farmers' woes with drastic power cuts, which pose a threat to standing paddy and vegetable crops.

Having failed to release compensation to farmers for the paddy crop destroyed during the recent floods, the AAP government is now adding to their distress by enforcing the power cuts, Badal alleged.

After failing farmers by refusing to come to their aid & releasing compensation for paddy destroyed by flooding, CM @BhagwantMann is now adding to their distress with drastic power cuts which are threatening to destroy standing paddy & vegetable crops. This is the CM who promised… pic.twitter.com/BDyLa7kkPy

— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) September 7, 2023

In a statement, Badal said, "The sheer apathy of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann towards the plight of the farmers of the state has crossed all limits. After refusing to release a fair compensation to the farmers one-and-a-half months after they battled floods, which destroyed paddy crops on thousands of acres, the government is enforcing massive power cuts." Badal further said farmers in Muktsar, Fazilka and Ferozepur districts are reporting power cuts that last between 18 and 24 hours, resulting in the withering of their paddy and vegetable crops.

"The situation has been compounded in the districts by attempts to forcibly close more than 700 lift irrigation pumps. The farmers are being forced to operate lift pumps at one-week intervals or face registration of cases," Badal claimed.

The Shiromani Akali Dal chief also alleged that the farmers who have been allocated a share of canal water are being banned from operating lift pumps altogether, with the order being enforced by police.

Badal claimed that the state's AAP dispensation, which had released excess water from the Harike headworks into villages in Punjab instead of canals in Rajasthan during the recent floods, is now increasing supply to the poll-bound state.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan are scheduled to be held later this year.

"The forcible closure of lift irrigation pumps of farmers in Punjab is also aimed at artificially inflating the availability of canal water so that Rajasthan's share can be increased further to derive political benefits for the AAP in the elections to that state," he said.

Such policies have resulted in water drying up at tails of canals, further aggravating the misery of farmers in Punjab.

Badal, who has previously served as deputy chief minister of Punjab, claimed that urban areas and the industrial sector are also facing rampant power cuts. Traders and industrialists are suffering and industries are severely hit.

"A situation has arisen where people are being forced to shift back to generators," he said, adding all this will have an adverse impact on the state's economy.  

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