Punjab government trying to hush up spurious pesticide scandal: Channi

Chandigarh, August 4: The Congress Legislature Party chief Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today slammed the Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal for hushing up the pesticides scandal that ruined the cotton farmers in the state last year leading to spate of suicides by them. The farmers were still not recovered from the last year’s loss this year too again the fly attacked. This clearly proves anti farmer stand of SAD BJP government.

In a statement, he said describing white fly attack as natural calamity amounted criminal cover up of the big scandal involving Agriculture Minister Tota Singh in which then director, agriculture Mangal Singh Sandhu was arrested. The pesticide purchased by the department worth more than Rs 30 crore was sub-standard that added to the misery of the farmers. This particular brand of pesticide had been purchased without any recommendation from the scientists and forced upon the farmers that proved to be ineffective against the white fly attack.

It was shocking that after conceding damage due to white fly attack last year, the government report was now blaming the farmers thereby absolving itself of all responsibility at one level while launching cover up operations at another.

Mr Channi alleged the Badal government seemed to have turned heartless towards the plight of the farmers as white fly had again attacked the crop this year although this was not widespread and many of the farmers preferred to plough back their cotton fields as the white fly appeared on the scene.

He demanded high level probe into this entire gamut to cover up this scandal as it had resulted not in just financial loss but the loss of human lives and incidence of suicides by the farmers had gone up in the cotton belt and this shocking trend was still continuing. Now the government had come out with this report to absolve itself of the criminal conduct in the purchase of pesticides.

He called upon the farmers to give a befitting reply to the Akali Dal-BJP combine in the forthcoming Assembly election for betraying and cheating them.