Will raise loan, won’t let farmers suffer: CM Capt Amarinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30

The political storm over the issue of free power to farmers intensified with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) threatening to launch a statewide morcha on the issue, even as Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday categorically rejected reports of withdrawal of free power to farmers.

The Chief Minister said his government was ready to forgo the portion of “fiscal deficit enhancement” offered by the Centre, but would not compromise on farmers’ interest at any cost.

“The Centre’s suggestion on replacement of free power to farmers with the direct benefit transfer (DBT) is totally unacceptable and a direct attack on the federal structure of the nation,” said the Chief Minister, adding that he would take up the issue with the Centre for trying to impose an anti-farmer condition on the cash-strapped state in the guise of extending fiscal support amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Claiming his government would take loans to bridge the fiscal deficit, he said the Centre could not dictate the terms of a sovereign loan being taken by a state government.

Sharpening his attack on the Akalis, he said SAD chief Sukhbir Badal was trying to pin the blame for the Central government’s misdemeanours on the state government.

“Union Minister and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal should resign for failing to ask the party’s alliance partner — BJP — to withdraw the offer of ‘fiscal deficit enhancement’ on the condition of withdrawing free power. The Centre has failed to come to the rescue of the state in the wake of the unprecedented crisis and lockdown,” he said.

Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa said no decision to withdraw free power to farmers had been taken in the Cabinet meeting.

However, the SAD dismissed the statement of the CM that the Council of Ministers had never contemplated any move to scrap the free power facility, terming it false, mischievous and deliberately misleading.

The SAD core committee, which met under the chairmanship of Sukhbir Singh Badal, said, “Earlier during the Akali-BJP regime also, the then Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had put pressure on the state government in this regard, but CM Parkash Singh Badal had stood his ground. The then FM Manpreet Badal was expelled from the SAD on the issue.”

A resolution passed at the emergency meeting of the core committee declared, “If the Congress government remains stubborn and tries to force the decision on farmers through a backdoor under the pretext of cash subsidy to farmers, the SAD will not remain a mute witness to it”.

Meanwhile, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunil Jakhar termed the open letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the completion of a year of the NDA government to the people of the country as a nasty joke.He said people across the country and all state governments were seeking financial help from the Union Government, but the PM remained unaware of the reality. “Due to the continuous lockdown for two and a half months, it has become difficult for every section of society to manage their daily needs. The state governments are also in a severe economic crisis as their sources of income are nose-diving,” Jakhar added.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.