Chandigarh, November 10
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has blamed the ruling Congress for the deepening crisis of DAP fertilizer in the state as much as the Modi-led central government. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Wednesday, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition, Harpal Singh Cheema alleged that like former Congress Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had become a puppet of the central (Modi) government.
He said with the Channi government proving to be extremely weak due to its innumerable weaknesses, the Modi government is daring to take action against the farmers of Punjab as the farmers of Punjab are leading a nationwide agitation against the agricultural laws. Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Modi government could not have discriminated against Punjab in the supply of DAP fertilizer to such an extent, if there was even a little bit of pressure from the Channi government on the central government; which was directly attacking the rights of Punjab and the farmers.
Cheema said that sowing of wheat was at its peak but Punjab had so far received only 41 percent share of fertilizer from the central government while there was still a shortage of 3.50 lakh tonnes of DAP fertilizer for sowing wheat in a total area of 35 lakh hectares. Criticizing the Channi government for not doing anything on the Centre’s biasness, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Chief Minister who used to attend the ‘Delhi Darbar’ every other day to save his seat, why didn’t he met the Prime Minister Modi and the concerned Union Ministers to get the shortage of DAP resolved? He said that as the Modi government was taking vindictive decisions against Punjab and the farmers, laborers and traders of Punjab; it would have been better if the Channi government had staged a sit-in protest in front of the ‘Modi Darbar’.
While Punjab has been allotted only 41 percent of the total requirement of DAP fertilizer, Haryana has been allotted 89 percent, Uttar Pradesh 170 percent and Rajasthan 88 percent DAP fertilizer. Lashing out at the Channi government, Harpal Singh Cheema said that black marketing was at its peak due to shortage of DAP fertilizer, due to which DAP fertilizer bag was being sold at double price (Rs 1200 per bag) and the farmers were being looted; but the Channi government was still in slumber. Cheema warned that if Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi did not go to the Modi government to pressurize to address the issue of DAP fertilizer, the AAP would launch a front against Chief Minister Channi.
