AAP shortchanged state farmers over paddy crop payment, alleges Congress

The Congress on Friday launched a no-holds-barred attack against the Aam Aadmi Party government alleging that it swindled state farmers of Rs 4,000 crore in payments made to them against their paddy crop during the kharif procurement season last year.

Raising the issue in the Punjab Assembly, the main Opposition party alleged that proceeds of the crime were used to fund AAP’s Delhi election campaign.

Minister for New and Renewable Energy Aman Arora rejected the charge and dared the Congress leaders to show if any complaint has been filed at any level.

“The allegations are baseless because the payments are made straight into the account of farmers. Can you quote even a single complaint filed by anyone and at any level to substantiate your allegation,” said Arora, who is also the state AAP chief.

Congress leader Tript Rajinder Bajwa alleged that Rs 400 crore was swindled alone in Majha region comprising districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.

“There are serious charges by farmers from across the state that they were not paid the MSP of Rs 2,300 per quintal as mentioned on (payment) papers. They were instead paid between Rs 1,700 and Rs 2,100. The rest was used during the recent Delhi Assembly elections,” he alleged during the zero hour. Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said a whopping Rs 4,000 crore was swindled in the entire state. “The allegations are serious in nature. Instead of referring the issue for a departmental inquiry, the Assembly should constitute an in-house panel for its investigation,” he said.

In response, Arora said, “It was sad that the zero hour was being wrongly manipulated by the Opposition to score political brownies through unsubstantiated facts.”

Minister Harjot Singh Bains demanded that the House should instead discuss the dent to the supremacy of the Akal Takht in the episode involving a decree directing the reorganisation of SAD.