SAD says it will restart agitation in assembly in case Amarinder reneges from promise to implement complete farm loan waiver in ongoing budget session
Chandigarh, June 16: The (SAD) today said it would redouble its efforts to get justice for farmers and labourers in case chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh did not stand by his assurance to implement a complete farm loan waiver during the ongoing budget session, even as it castigated the Speaker for running the Vidhan Sabha in a partisan manner. In a statement here, former finance minister and senior Akali leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa said though the chief minister had given an assurance that he would implement the loan waiver promise, he did not seem to be sure about it. “Instead of giving an unequivocal statement on the issue in the assembly today, he started talking about lack of funds and even that he could not be pressurized into doing anything. Though we found all this strange and it also indicates that the Congress government is trying to run away from a complete loan waiver as promised, we have taken the CM’s assurance at face value. We are ready to even disregard reports of the expert group formed by the CM which has claimed that the waiver is not possible and has even asked for a two month extension to finalize its report. We even stopped our protest in the Vidhan Sabha to force the Speaker to admit an adjournment motion to discuss the need for a complete loan waiver immediately due to this assurance”. Mr Dhindsa said however in case Capt Amarinder did not honour his promise in totality the SAD would restart its agitation in the Vidhan Sabha and would simultaneously also protest outside the house on this issue. “We want the government to implement a complete loan waiver of all institutional loans of nationalized and cooperative banks and cooperative institutions and also non institutional loans of commission agents. Anything less than this will be unacceptable”, he added. Commenting on the discriminatory attitude of Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP, he said the Speaker was functioning like a stooge of the Congress party. He said despite repeated requests and written submissions, the Speaker did not allow the SAD to move an adjournment on the burning issue of loan waiver for farmers and labourers. He said Rana KP also refused to act on the SAD demand to form a house committee to examine the abuses hurled by Local Bodies minister Navjot Sidhu in the assembly yesterday. Mr Dhindsa said this was not all. “The Speaker displayed his partiality towards the Congress benches by not allocating even the approved time to the SAD. “Not only this, the Speaker repeatedly allowed point of order interventions from the treasury benches to disrupt speeches being made by Akali speakers. We will protest against this and will not let the house run if the Speaker does not stop this discrimination immediately”, he added. —PTC News
