Captain Government should take immediate steps to address farm distress: Kultar Singh

Chandigarh, March 5 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Kotkapura MLA and state chief of the Kisan wing of the party, Kultar Singh Sandhwan and Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Amritsar Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal have slammed the state government for being insensitive to the demands of the farming community and farm laborers in the state, leaving them to take to roads in protest.

In a statement issued from the party headquarters here in Chandigarh on Tuesday, Sandhwan said that the farming community had always been on the receiving end during the subsequent government ruling the roost. He added that, like its predecessors – SAD-BJP government, the Captain Amarinder Singh government, too, had failed to address the concerns of the farmers and backtracked on other promises it made to them ahead of the Assembly election.

The Kisan leader accused both the governments of being callous to the demands of the farmers, leaving them with no obvious option but to commit suicides. He lamented that the Captain government had also made a U-turn on the complete farm loan waiver, leaving the farmers to fend for themselves.

He alleged that it was due to the lackadaisical approach of the government in the saddle that disgruntled farmers, farm laborers and their families were left to stage a protest outside the office of the deputy commissioner (DC), Tarn Taran, by holding the public to ransom by disrupting rail traffic. He said that were protesting on the fourth day today and resorting to ‘jail bharo’ movement  to ventilate their ire.

Sandhwan further said that the government was responsible for blocking road or rail traffic on the Delhi-Amritsar railway track, to the inconvenience of the public at large, enabling farmers to take to roads, who had no other opting to ventilate their ire against the deaf and dumb dispensation.   

AAP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Amritsar Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal on the occasion said that the distressed farmers, farm laborers, teaches, and state employees, were on a warpath with the dispensation turning a blind eye to their issues and concerns. He added that sugarcane growers in the state had yet to get their arrears worth more than 400 crore due from the private sugar mill owners in the state.   

Dhaliwal said that farmers were not getting remunerative prices for their produce, forcing them to sell it at cheaper rates in the markets. He added that a major chunk of profit was being usurped by the ‘arhtiyas’.  He demanded that, taking a cue from the AAP’s Delhi model, the government should immediately implement the much-awaited recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission  to bring some solace to the agitating farmers.