Chandigarh, April 26, 2021
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government for obstructing the procurement of wheat in the state and said that retaliation against ‘annadatas’ would cost the Modi government dearly. In a joint statement issued from the party headquarters here on Monday, AAP Kisan Wing president and MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan, vice-president Gurdit Singh Sekhon, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, Kaka Brar, Harmeet Singh Aulakh, general secretary Mahinder Singh Sidhu and state secretary Nachhatar Singh Sidhu alleged that the Modi government was not leaving any stone unturned to harass the farmers, but the policy of revenge with ‘annadatas’ would cost Modi and the entire BJP, dearly.
They said that at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had withdrawn from procurement of wheat from the state. At the same time, due to low supply of gunny bags (bardana) to Punjab and decision to shift the payment of wheat directly to the account of the farmers by ignoring the Arhtiyas; wheat was still lying in the mandis of the state. They said that when the country was in need of food grains, the farmers of Punjab were diverted from the traditional crops under the slogan of Green Revolution and at that time FCI was procuring grains from the mandis of Punjab. “Now that the state’s farmers have exhausted their land and water to replenish the country’s reserves, the FCI at the behest of Modi has made the farmers to tramp in the mandis,” they added.
Sandhwan alleged that the Tughlaq decrees being imposed by the Union government showed that the Modi government was imposing restrictions to get revenge on the ‘annadatas’ of Punjab, as the Punjab farmers were the first to oppose the three black laws related to agriculture enacted by Modi. He said that Narendra Modi had also ignored the voice of the farmers of Punjab who had united against the black laws. “Instead of solving the problems of the ‘annadatas’, Modi is leading the country to ruin for the sake of the interests of his corporate friends,” he added. Sandhwan said that Modi’s announcement to provide free food grains to 80 crore poor people of the country during the Covid pandemic would be fulfilled only by the hard work of the farmers and not by the policies of the corporators. He appealed to PM Modi to direct the FCI to procure wheat from the mandis of the state and withdraw the three black farm laws so that the farmers could go to their farms and cultivate the crops.
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