Man killed, buried under temple’s ‘havan kund’ in Punjab’s Sangrur, 2 held
Chandigarh, October 8 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today lauded the Punjab government for the exemplary action taken against spurious pesticide manufacturers and sellers and said this action along with the Rs 643 crore compensation package for loss to the cotton crop could only have been taken by a farmer friendly government led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
In a statement here, senior party leaders – Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said it was a matter of record that 18 persons had already been arrested for indulging in sale and manufacture of spurious pesticides from 11 districts in the State. He said besides this a
Special Investigation Team (SIT) had already been constituted under the supervision of ADGP (Law & Order) Mr. I.P.S. Sahota to investigate all 18 cases registered in this regard in their entirety. They said a high level investigation team comprising Mr. B.K. Bawa IGP Bathinda Zone, Dr. J.K. Jain IGP Intelligence and Counter Intelligence and Mr. Nageswara Rao IGP Crime had visited whitefly affected areas and interacted with farmers to get important leads in the scam and plunged headlong to crack the case to bring it to its logical end.
The SAD leaders said besides this, 710 samples had been collected from eleven districts and sent for chemical examination to Central Insecticide Laboratory, Directorate of PP Quarantine and Stores, Faridabad. They said raids were also being conducted to nab culprits who were on the run.
The senior leaders said these steps were a clear indication that the State government had pursuing this case with utmost sincerity and sense of purpose to ensure that those who had tried to rob farmers of their crop should be awarded exemplary punishment. They said only a farmer friendly chief minister like Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who understood the problems faced by farmers, could take such proactive steps to safeguard the interests of farmers.
Mr Grewal and Dr Cheema also urged the farmers to compare the action taken by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal with the neighbouring State which also witnessed a white fly attack. “Despite the fact that the pest attack in fields in the neighbouring State was more than in Punjab it is the latter which has announced an unprecedented compensation package of Rs 643 crore besides releasing individual compensation of Rs 8,000 per acre to farmers. Earlier during the Congress regime of Capt Amarinder Singh farmers received a compensation of Rs 3,000 per acre only”, they added.
Urging farmers to differentiate between those who had stood with them through thick and thin and those who had only shed crocodile tears for them, the SAD leaders said it was only the SAD-BJP government which had stood by its commitment to give free power facility to farmers. “In direct contrast Capt Amarinder Singh had withdrawn this facility immediately upon coming to power in 2002”, they said.
