With Punjab Agriculture Development Bank (PADB) reportedly planning to auction the land of defaulter farmers in order to recover its…
Sukhbir Singh Badal.
With Punjab Agriculture Development Bank (PADB) reportedly planning to auction the land of defaulter farmers in order to recover its dues, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday directed its workers to oppose the cruel and inhuman act of the Congress government at any cost.
In a statement, SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, said the party rank and file will vehemently oppose any attempt by the Congress government to sell off land of thousands of indebted farmers by initiating kurki proceedings against them.
He said it was shocking that after defaulting on implementation of its Rs 90,000 Crore loan waiver promise, the Congress government had now started the process of persecuting farmers by deciding to sell off agriculture land of 12,635 indebted farmers across six districts to recover their debt. He said proceedings had also been launched against another 20,000 farmers.
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The SAD president said it was a matter of shame that PADB officials, who had initiated this exercise by arresting 28 farmers and procuring arrest warrants against 109 others, were applauding Cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa for leading this drive.
“Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is honor bound to tell Punjabis why he has allowed his Cooperation minister to re-start Kurki proceedings in Punjab after a gap of 30 years,” Badal said.
He said the CM had admitted in the Assembly that kurki proceedings had been discontinued against farmers since 1986. The Congress government also took a cabinet decision not to implement recovery proceedings against the peasantry.
“However the Cooperation department is openly resorting to recovery proceedings against small farmers exposing the double faced nature of this deceitful government which has even violated the sanctity of its own cabinet,” he added.
Stating that more than 500 farmers had already committed suicide, Badal said the latest action would lead to further despondency and increase the suicide rate in the State.
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