AAP govt betrayed paddy farmers on Rs 2500 cash incentive: Partap Singh Bajwa

Chandigarh, October 30: Senior Congress Leader and Leader of

Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday condemned the Aam Aadmi

Government in Punjab for betraying the paddy growers in Punjab on Rs 2500 cash

incentive, which was announced to stop them from burning

the paddy stubble. Due to AAP's failure to keep its promise, the paddy

growers are forced to burn the residue which has deteriorated the Air

Quality Index in the major cities of Punjab. 

 

Bajwa said that Punjab has crossed 12,000 cases of stubble

burning with above 8000 cases taking place last week. The AQI in some major

cities including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar Patiala, Bathinda, and

Chandigarh has reached from moderate to poor. "The AAP government

has been in power for more than seven months and they are very well

aware of the stubble-burning issue in the state, even so, they have not been

able to come up with a practical solution", Bajwa added. 

 

LoP said that it was the AAP government, which had

proposed to give Rs 2,500 per acre to paddy growers. The AAP government had

suggested that the Centre would contribute Rs 1500 per acre while Rs 1,000 per

acre will be provided by the Punjab and Delhi governments. "Since the

Centre Government has rejected the AAP's proposal to provide Rs 1500, it is the

Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government's responsibility to pay Rs 2500 per acre to

paddy farmers. "The farmers burn the paddy straw not out of choice, but

out of compulsion. Therefore, without any financial assistance from the

government, farmers find it very difficult to deal with the situation",

said Bajwa. 

 

Bajwa reminded Kejriwal about his Punjab election manifesto

in which he claimed to provide incentives to farmers to avoid the burning of

paddy straw. He questioned Bhagwant Mann and his master Kejriwal for washing

their hands off from their earlier promise of providing Rs. 2,500 per acre

incentive (1500 Center 1000 Punjab and Delhi) to farmers for not burning the

crop residue. AAP (Advertisement, Announcement, and Publicity) Government

should have compromised on the Advertisement budget for the sake of the

environment in Punjab. 

 

 

He said that the AAP government is attempting to create a

false narrative of 'seven months vs 70 years' spending taxpayers' crores

of rupees on advertisement in print, electronic and digital media. But in

reality, the AAP government has failed to improve the financial health

of Punjab. As per a news report, the AAP government has borrowed the

amount of Rs 11464 crore in the first six months of its rule. Recently

National Green Tribunal slapped a fine of Rs. 2000 crore on the Punjab

Government for failing to ensure proper treatment of solid and liquid wastes

causing harm to the environment.