How are you asking for votes after refusing to give compensation to farmers for crop losses – Harsimrat K Badal asks Agri minister Gurmeet S Khudian

Chandigarh. Former union minister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked Agriculture minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gurmeet Singh Khuddian as to how he was asking for the votes of people of this constituency after refusing to give compensation for pink bollworm attack and hailstorms which destroyed crops in the region.

The Bathinda MP, who addressed a number of meetings in the Bhucho Mandi assembly segment as part of her election campaign, said “it is shocking but true that the Agriculture minister also said his party’s commitment to give MSP for all crops was a ‘jumla’ and that it did not have any intention to do so”. She said the AAP government had also gone back on its commitment to farmers that it would procure the entire cotton, maize and pulses produced in the State. He said in direct contrast the former SAD government had paid compensation to farmers and farm labourers when they suffered losses due to white fly attack.

Stating that this was not all, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said the AAP government had also colluded with the central government to stop Punjab farmers from marching to Delhi. “Our farmers were tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets and even live ammunition on Punjab soil but this government did not even register a case against Haryana officials responsible for this. Where was Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian when this happened? Why didn’t he raise his voice in favour of farmers and ask for justice for them?”

Asserting that the SAD alone deserved their votes, Mrs Badal also appealed to the voters not to encourage the ‘dal-badlu’ Congress candidate. She said such turncoats who changed parties at the drop of a hat could not be trusted to fight for their rights.

The Bathinda MP also launched a scathing attack on both the Congress and AAP for befooling people by aligning with each other at the centre but contesting separately in Punjab. She said while the erstwhile Congress government had betrayed them by failing to waive off their loans or giving the promised Rs 2,500 per month allowance to unemployed youth, the AAP government had presided over the spread of the drug menace which it had promised to wipe out in ten days. She also asked women folk to ‘gherao’ AAP leaders and ask them to first deposit Rs 24,000 in their account at the rate of Rs 1,000 per month for the last two years before asking for their votes.

Mrs Badal also recounted how the Congress government had diluted the atta-dal scheme by reducing the wheat disbursal to 15 kilogram per family from the 30 kilogram given by former chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal. She said the current AAP government had reduced this benefit drastically and was only disbursing 5 kg flour now. She also condemned the AAP government for curtailing social welfare benefits given to the poor by the erstwhile SAD government. She said the shagun scheme had been closed as also the cycle scheme for girls and the SC scholarship scheme for Dalit students.