Farmers distressed due to shortage of gunny bags, government should solve the problem soon: Bhagwant Mann
Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)criticised Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh-led government for the problems faced by the farmers due to poor procurement of wheat in the mandis of the state. AAP state president and MP Bhagwant Mann on Saturday visited and reviewed the mandis in Sangrur district and listened to the problems of the farmers. During his visit, the farmers told MP Bhagwant Mann that their wheat was not being purchased due to lack of gunny bags (bardana) in the mandis, due to which they were facing a lot of problems.
Describing the problem of an elderly farmer, Mann said that for 20 days, these elderly farmers had been making rounds of the mandi, but due to lack of gunny bags, their wheat was not being purchased, due to which their hard-earned grain was getting spoiled. "If the crop was purchased on time, it would have reached safely in the warehouses by now, but due to non-procurement on time, wheat is getting spoiled, lying in the mandis," he added.
Mann further said that currently, the farmers were being hit double as on the one hand, the farmers of Punjab have been sitting on a sit-in protest against the black farm laws on the Delhi borders for the last five months and on the other hand, despite laborious farming, the government was not buying their crop on time. He accused Captain Amarinder Singh of being in collusion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the Modi government at the Centre and the Captain government of the state together were harassing the farmers. "The government is taking revenge on the farmers for opposing the black laws. It is the policy of both the central and state government to harass the protesters in any way, which is very bad," he added. Mann said that on one side the government calls the farmers as 'annadatas' and on the other side they were making them beggars.
Mann said that this is the first time when the farmers of Punjab were opposing both the central government and the state government simultaneously. The farmers sitting on dharna in Delhi are opposing the black farm laws of the Modi government, while all the farmers in the mandis of Punjab are opposing the anti-farmer policies of the Captain government. He said that the farmers were raising slogans against the Captain government in the mandis of Punjab. Mann appealed to the Punjab government and the administration to resolve the problems of the farmers as soon as possible and to buy their crops immediately and pay the money.
