Cong betrayed farmers: Harsimrat

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 20

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday said the manner in which families of farm suicide victims were being “ignored by the Congress government was inhuman”. She asked Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to disburse Rs 10 lakh compensation to each family, besides offering them a government job, as promised in the Congress election manifesto.

Reacting to the recent farm suicides in Talwandi Sabo and Budhlada, the Bathinda MP said it was shocking that even after two years in government, the Congress was unable to frame a policy to give compensation and government jobs to kin of farm suicide victims. More than 950 farmers had committed suicide in despair after the Congress “went back on its promise” to implement a Rs 90,000-crore farm loan waiver, but the government was still not moved by the suffering of the farming community, she alleged.

Claiming that the Chief Minister had “lied and deceived” farmers, Harsimrat asked Capt to explain why he had gone on record and assured farmers that their complete loans would be waived, be it those from nationalised and cooperative banks or private money lenders. She said Finance Minister Manpreet Badal should also explain why he had made this promise the cornerstone of the party’s election manifesto.

“Now, after befooling the farmers, the Congress is trying to fool Dalits also,” the MP said, adding that the people would not be fooled by the party this time. “The Dalit community knows that the Congress has withdrawn each and every facility granted to them by Parkash Singh Badal and will not be taken in by their fraudulent promises.”

She appealed to the farmers to take the Congress to task for “backstabbing” them. Harsimrat urged them to use the power of ballot to teach a befitting lesson to the Congress so that it was forced to implement the promises made to them.