Punjab CM appeals farmers to call off agitation, puts blame on Congress

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today appealed to farmers and farm labour Unions, blocking rail tracks for the last four days, to call off their agitation in larger public interest. He also called the farmer and labour repersentatives for talks on October 12.Farmers are agitating against damage of cotton crop due to supply of spurious pesticides.In a statement issued here today, the Chief Minister said that SAD had always been a votary of the farmers and their rights adding that their government had always taken appropriate steps to safeguard the interests of the farmers. Badal said that right from subsidies to timely dispensation of compensation, whenever required, the state government has always extended a helping hand to the farmers.He accused Congress for the current situation.
The Chief Minister said that apart from taking these welfare measures for farming community we were fully conscious that agriculture was no longer a profitable venture and thus the state government had introduced agriculture diversification program due to which the farmers were getting handsome returns through allied farming activities like dairy, fishery, goatery and piggery. He further said that it was on record that whenever our farmers had faced any sort of problem the SAD-BJP alliance government has came to their rescue.Badal said that during the past more than eight years the state government has provided free power to farmers worth Rs 28000 crore otherwise their problems would have accentuated manifold on account of electricity bills of tube well.