Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh /New Delhi, April 30: The Punjab Congress President, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, today demanded immediate resignation of the Union Food Processing Minister Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal for misleading the House yesterday on the issue of procurement of wheat in Punjab.
“She should know that actual procurement is not more than 10 per cent in the state. The procurement agencies have neither issued J-forms to the farmers which is a proof of purchase nor made payments. The farmers have only been issued slips of the quantity that has been deemed to be purchased without making any mention of the procurement price”, he said.
He slammed it as a serious lapse on her part as she had intervened in the Lok Sabha without the fact sheet and that too about the issue which her ministry was not handling after the same was raised by the Congress vice-president,Mr Rahul Gandhi who had spent time in the mandis of Khanna, Mandi Gobindgarh and Sirhind.
He asked Harsimrat whether she had visited any mandi even her own Bathinda constituency so far or not. He said she might be scared of facing black flag demonstration with which she is now greeted in the villages in her own constituency.
Mr Bajwa, who was present at the sit-in organised by the party MLAs in front of the residence of the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal, said the state government had panicked after the sudden visit to the state by Mr Gandhi.
He demanded that the payments of the farmers must be cleared without any delay and they be paid full MSP. He reiterated the demand for Rs 200 per quintal bonus on wheat to compensate for the loss in productivity.
Mr Bajwa referred to the heavy damage to the crops due to inclement whether and said it varies from 20 to 40 per cent and said with the agrarian crisis deepening, the farmers were in no position to bear this loss and they must be adequately compensated.
