Chandigarh, July 9: Slamming his shameless attempts to befool the farmers by announcing poll promises that the current state government had already started executing long ago, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday asked Sukhbir Badal to check his facts before shooting through his mouth.
Trashing the Akali chief’s announcements for farmers who sacrificed their lives fighting against the draconian Farm Laws of the central government, the Chief Minister termed them as a last-ditch effort by Sukhbir to woo back the famers whom his party had alienated over the Farm Laws.
“Do you think Punjab’s farmers are fools to be taken in by your desperate statements?” asked the Chief Minister, asking Sukhbir to stop cheating the people of the state with such deceitful announcements. “How do you propose to do something that has already been done?” he further remarked, adding that “we had made these announcements while you were still busy conspiring with your political masters, the BJP, to destroy our farmers.”
The Chief Minister was reacting to Sukhbir’s statement that if the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) comes to power, it will give jobs, health cover etc to the families of Punjab farmers who had died during the prolonged agitation against the central laws, which were legislated with the approval of the Akalis and the Badals, who were then part of the central government.
Ridiculing Sukhbir’s pipe dream of the Akalis coming to power in Punjab, whose people he and his party had ruined during the 10 years of the SAD-BJP rule, the Chief Minister said with his frivolous promises, the SAD president had proved his total absence of any connect with the people on the ground.
Pointing out that his government was already giving compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of such farmers, the Chief Minister said of the 237 Punjab farmers who had died so far during the ongoing agitation, the families of 191 had already got the recompense, totalling Rs. 9,46,5000. Compensation for the rest of the families was also under process and would be paid off long before the Akalis even finalise their campaign for the elections, he remarked, ridiculing Sukhbir.
The Chief Minister further pointed out that he had personally announced jobs for the kin of the deceased farmers several months ago and the Revenue Department was in advanced stages of finalising the candidates.
As for the promise of health cover, the Chief Minister asked Sukhbir “Don’t you even read the newspapers?” The incumbent Congress government in Punjab had brought all the farmers under the state health insurance cover through its Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana, he pointed out, adding that the Akalis were deliberately misleading the farmers with their false promises, which they could not implement since the schemes for the same were already in place.
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