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.
