Paddy procurement: Amarinder to camp in border areas to help

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today said he would camp in border areas from October 10 to ensure that the farmers, who had been evacuated amid growing Indo-Pak tension, were able to sell their produce without any hassle.

"I will personally camp near Amritsar-Tarn Taran border from October 10 and ensure farmers, who were unnecessarily evacuated, are able to reach mandis and sell grains without problems," he said.

Singh accused the Badal government of pushing the poor farmers of the state to the brink of suicide after failing to to ensure timely procurement of paddy.

"We have stopped our 'Punjab Express' campaign and I have asked all leaders and workers in the border areas to assist farmers in the procurement process," the former chief minister said in a statement.
 

Hitting out at Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, Singh said, "It's just a matter of few months before the corrupt Badal government is ousted. As soon as the Congress is in power, your (farmers) woes will come to an immediate end."

Last year itself, more than 500 debt-strapped farmers in the state had committed suicide, he claimed, adding that many more have taken the extreme step this year so far.

The government's "anti-people" policies are putting the very survival of the farmers at stake, he alleged.

The situation is critical in the border villages, where the delay in shifting the grain to the mandis, caused by the "untimely and unwarranted" evacuation, has left the farmers devastated, he said.

During the Congress regime, he said, grain was lifted from the mandis the same day and payments were disbursed within 24 hours.

He alleged the Badal government had apparently been too busy misusing the central loan for procurement.

This is evident from the state government's decision to borrow Rs 31,000 crore from banks for the loan repayment, he added.

Singh alleged that Punjab is being pushed to bankruptcy by the Badal government and appealed to the people to defeat the Akalis.