'Calculated betrayal', Congress' Partap Bajwa slams BJP, AAP for 'tardy' paddy lifting in Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 25 (PTI) Amid the "tardy" paddy lifting in Punjab, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday lashed out at the BJP-led Centre and the AAP government in the state for their "calculated betrayal" of the farmers.

With farmers across Punjab protesting against the slow procurement and lifting of paddy, Bajwa in a statement condemned the "chaos" in the mandis, attributing it to either "gross incompetence or a deliberate agenda to destabilise Punjab's agrarian backbone".

Bajwa also questioned if the BJP and AAP were "intentionally complicit", suggesting a conspiracy to drive Punjab's economy to the brink.

"The people of Punjab have relied on seamless procurement of paddy for the last 50 years, yet we are witnessing unprecedented mismanagement under the current regime. Is this disarray due to incompetence, or have the BJP and AAP devised a joint strategy to destabilise Punjab and then take advantage (of the situation)," Bajwa asked.

The anguish of Punjab's farmers who are witnessing the piling up of their produce with no efforts to expedite the lifting process points at a "deliberate attempt" to create hardships in a state already reeling under agrarian distress, said the leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly.

Referring to BJP leader Amarinder Singh's visit to the grain market in Khanna on Friday, Bajwa said, "Where was Captain Amarinder Singh when Punjab's farmers first raised the alarm? Despite living in Punjab, he remained silent when farmers' crops were left to rot over the past three weeks. Now he has reemerged with promises on the eve of bypolls." Bajwa also said that Amarinder Singh's visit to the grain market looked a little more than a "political stunt", given his silence on the plight of the farmers for so long.

Highlighting Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's "absence" from the mandis during paddy procurement, Bajwa asked "why Mann didn't make a single visit to the mandis to directly address the grievances of our farmers".

Earlier on Friday, Amarinder Singh lashed out at Chief Minister Mann over the "tardy" paddy procurement in the state, alleging the latter "turned his back on the farmers" facing hardships in the mandis.

Visiting the grain market in Khanna where farmers are complaining of slow paddy purchase, the former Punjab chief minister hit out at the Mann-led AAP government and told reporters that the grain markets are bursting at the seams as paddy has not been lifted from the mandis. PTI CHS ARI