Chandigarh, April 8
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today appealed to Punjabis to stand up as one to help distressed farmers whose standing wheat crop had been damaged across 1.25 lakh acres following unseasonal rain and hail storms in the same manner in which they came to the rescue of farmers whose paddy crop was destroyed during devastating floods last year.
The SAD president, who held a meeting with the party’s halka incharges and district presidents, said a detailed plan had been charted to start distribution of wheat as well as dry and green fodder to the affected farmers after April 20. “We are creating nodal points for collection of the relief material which then will be distributed in the affected villages,” he added.
Badal said the SAD was also in the process of arranging balers who would create bales in the fields of affected farmers free of cost so that they could earn additional money in this process. He said the party would also try to extend help to small farmers whose vegetable produce had been damaged by the recent hail storms.
The SAD president also took on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for failing to fulfill his responsibility towards the suffering farmers. He said the chief minister as well as the Aam Aadmi Party had repeatedly announced before coming to power in 2022 that it would provide an advance compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre for crop damage before any survey or ‘girdwari’. He said the AAP government had failed to release any compensation for crop damage following the floods across 4 lakh acres last year. “Now also the government has refused to help the distressed farmers by releasing compensation to them”.
Asserting that the SAD would do its utmost for the farmers, Badal also castigated AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal for lying during election campaigning in Gujarat that the AAP government in Punjab had released a compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre to farmers one month after they suffered losses due to flooding of their fields.
Replying to a media query, the SAD president hailed the Punjab and Haryana high court’s decision to order the AAP government to clear ending Dearness Allowance dues till July 1, 2025 by June 30 this year. Describing the order as a victory for State government employees, Badal said, “The court has held the AAP government to account as it was running away from clearing the dues of employees which run up to Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 crore”. He said besides serving employees even government pensioners were also affected.
Badal said both the erstwhile Congress and the present AAP government had discriminated against government employees. “Besides reducing and even freezing recruitment in various categories, the AAP government is even questioning the legality of extending the Dearness Allowance benefits by asserting that it was not bound to do so,” he said, while adding that this was in stark contrast to the previous SAD government under Parkash Singh Badal which had not only appointed Pay Commissions but also released Dearness Allowance dues to employees promptly. The meeting was attended by all district presidents and halka incharges
