Chandigarh, October 25
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab MLAs, state office bearers, district presidents and constituency in-charges visited various mandis across the state and met the farmers, arhtiyas and laborers; sitting with their paddy crops and assessed crop damage due to rain, wind and hail storm. The party leaders visiting Mansa, Bathinda Urban, Lehra, Sangrur, Kotkapura, Sri Muktsar, Atam Nagar Ludhiana, Kharar and Fatehgarh Sahib; demanded from the Union government to provide special relief package for the crops destroyed in Punjab due to natural calamity. They demanded that the Punjab government should pay 100 percent compensation per acre to the farmers for the damaged crops.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Monday, AAP Punjab Kisan Wing state president and MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that while the recent unseasonal rains, hailstorms and strong winds in Punjab have damaged the paddy and standing crops in mandis, on the other hand it has damaged cotton, sugarcane and vegetables as well. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party, realizing its responsibility, visited the mandis of different cities of Punjab on Monday and after interacting with the farmers, arhtiyas and laborers; assessed the damage of the paddy crop in the mandis and the damage to the standing crops.
Kultar Singh Sandhwan alleged, “Delay in bidding, filling and disbursement of paddy crop in the mandis of Punjab has resulted in crop failure due to rains and while the farmers are suffering financial loss; they have to suffer mental anguish also. First, the procurement of paddy was hampered and then the procurement of paddy was delayed on the pretext of high moisture content; for which the Narendra Modi government and the Channi government are equally responsible.”
The AAP leader further said that in the last season, the farmers were harried due to lack of gunny bags (bardana) and now the farmers were being harassed by not buying their produce in the name of high moisture content in the paddy. Sandhwan said that neither the Channi government nor the Narendra Modi-led central government was paying any heed to the farmers, even if their crops were damaged in the farms or the farmers sitting in the mandis were harassed.
Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that agriculture was dependent on nature. Due to continuous rain on the paddy crop, the moisture content in the paddy was increasing. However, the Union government was making it a condition to procure paddy with minimum moisture content under a conspiracy against the farmers of Punjab. While, it is important that relaxation should be given in the moisture content of paddy; so that the farmers do not have to hassle in the mandis, he added.
