हिंदी
Targets govt for not paying promised compensation to farmers for not burning straw
Bathinda , August 25
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab senior leader and MLA Prof. Baljinder Kaur, MLA Rupinder Kaur Ruby and MLA Master Baldev Singh said here on Tuesday that Punjab government was not serious about finding a lasting solution to the problem of straw burning, saying the farmers were being harassed on one or the other pretext, depriving them of the promised compensation to them for not burning straw.
In a joint statement issued here on Tuesday, the AAP MLAs said the government had promised the farmers in the past that those farmers who would not burn straw in their fields would be suitably compensated by the government, adding nothing had come out of the discourse till date as such farmers were crying hoarse for the promised compensation.
They said the problem of burning straw in Punjab had not emerged out of choice but out of compulsion of the farmers, but the successive state and Union Governments were not serious about finding a permanent solution to this nagging problem.
Prof. Baljinder Kaur and Rupinder Kaur Ruby said that if the government in the state had been a tad sensitised towards the issue of straw burning, it would never have dragged its feet from running Bathinda thermal plant on straw. They said had the government kept its promises peddled ahead of assuming power in 2017, the state would have been greener and cleaner. They threatened that if it failed to address the problem, farmers would be helpless to burn the straw.
Prof. Baljinder Kaur and Master Baldev Singh on the occasion said that till date Punjab government had not paid any compensation to the farmers who had not burnt straw, saying they were being threatened and cases registered against them for burning straw. They lamented that, instead of holding the hands of the farmers, the governments were pushing them into an abysmal financial crisis. They demanded the Punjab government should immediately announce the promised compensation to the farmers who had not burnt straw.
The AAP MLAs said the Punjab government had not been able fulfil any of its poll promises made to the beleaguered farmers, employees and the unemployed, demanding it should compensate the farmers for the expenses incurred for not burning the paddy straw and stop harassing the farmers.
