Chandigarh, March 18
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today called for a judicial probe into the status of the Rs 12,500 crore State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to ascertain how the money was misappropriated, as farmers had not received a single rupee in compensation for the devastating floods which hit Punjab in 2025.
Participating in the discussion on the Agriculture demands in parliament, the Bathinda MP said crops across four lakh acres of land were destroyed in Punjab in 2025 following which the centre had announced that farmers would get a compensation of Rs 12,500 crore which it said was lying with the State under the SDRF head. “Twenty union ministers also visited Punjab during the floods in what can be best described as flood tourism and assured all help. However the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) turned around and said it did not have these funds,” she stated. Harsimrat said no effort was made to probe the matter and that a judicial probe should be ordered to locate the funds so that the same could be distributed among the farmers of the State.
The Bathinda MP also pointed out to the mismanagement of the situation during the floods by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). She said as Punjab did not have a Member in the BBMB the Board failed to read the situation correctly and water was released from the Bhakra dam without due planning compounding the situation during the floods last year. She demanded that Punjab be given due representation in the Board as earlier so that its interests could be safeguarded.
Harsimrat also demanded that Punjab’s rights over its River waters be restored as per the Riparian Principle. She said half of Punjab’s River waters had already been given to Rajasthan and efforts were now afoot to release more water to Haryana through the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. The SAD leader also demanded that the Swaminathan report be implemented in toto and that MSP be calculated on the C 2 plus 50 percent formula which ensured a 50 per cent profit to farmers over the comprehensive cost of production.
Speaking about the effect of the Iran war on the agriculture sector in the country, Harsimrat said basmati cargo worth Rs 4 lakh crore was stuck in passage and efforts should be made to ensure it reached its destinations. She also asked what steps the central government was taking to fill the likely shortfall due to stoppage in import of Urea fertilizer from Iran.
Speaking about the agriculture budget, Harsimrat asked the central government to explain how farmers’ income would be doubled when the share of agriculture sector in the country’s budget had been halved and when the fertilizer subsidy had been slashed by Rs 15,679 crore. She said similarly there had been a fifty per cent reduction in the number of beneficiaries of the Kisan Samman Nidhi in Punjab. “This has happened despite the high incidence of farm suicides in Punjab”, she added.
