Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Punjab Congress President, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, today warned the Parkash Singh Badal government against the continuing miserable plight of the farmers, traders and industrialists who were suffering either due to criminal neglect or the lop sided policies.
The Congress Kisan cell would stage dharnas at the district headquarters and burn effigies of the central and state government on September 29 while the PPCC chief will lead a delegation of the Industrialists, Beopar Mandal and PPCC on the same day to submit Memorandum to the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal.
In a statement, the PPCC chief said the industrialists in the state were agitated over VAT and other issues but despite several discussions, the state government had failed to come to their rescue by resolving those problems. On the one hand, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, had been giving the impression that he was on a mission to woo industrialists to the state while on the other, the existing industry was on the verge of closure.
“It seems he is exploring the avenues for his own business interests at the cost of state exchequer as all the years, his government had failed in all such endeavours as the basic problems here were too well known to the investors. For Mr Sukhbir Badal, the priority is the expansion of his personal business empire”, Mr Bajwa alleged adding that the so called progressive Punjab and agriculture summits had failed to attract any tangible investment.
Referring to the deepening crisis in the farm sector, he said the worst hit at the moment were the cotton growers whose crops had suffered extensive damage due to untimely rains. Many of them had been ruins. Their problems had been further compounded that majority of them were already under huge debt and this burden would increase in the absence of adequate compensation. Already, more and more farmers in the Malwa belt were committing suicides and the state government had failed to provide any relief package despite the fact that Mr Badal had been proclaiming his sympathies for the farmers all these years.
He also demanded that the basmati farmers should be assured adequate price as the prices in the market were falling this might land these farmers into crisis.
He assured the people in the state that the Congress would be in the forefront in their struggle against the Badal government.
He said the kisan wing of the party had already chalked out elaborate agitational programme to focus on the issues concerning the farming community. The problems of all other sections would also be taken up for getting relief from the state government, he added.
