Bathinda, September 25
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab MLA and Kisan Wing state president Kultar Singh Sandhwan and MLA Prof Baljinder Kaur visited various villages in the cotton belt of the state to assess the damage caused to the crops by the pink bollworm infestation.
The leaders asked Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to give 100 per cent crop loss compensation to the affected farmers by inspecting the entire cotton belt of Punjab and a high-level inquiry on the varieties of BT cotton seeds and pesticides. At the same time, the farmers of the entire cotton belt should be provided high-quality pesticides free of cost, they said.
Sandhwan and Baljinder Kaur on Saturday visited the affected farmers in Kot Bakhtu and Kanakwal villages of Bathinda district. Expressing sympathy with them, the AAP leaders said the time for sowing cotton was over and no new crop could be sown. Therefore, the farmers should get full compensation for the loss.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal also asked asked the Chief Minister to announce an immediate compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre for farmers whose cotton crop had been destroyed in lakhs of acres across the Malwa belt in the state besides demanding an impartial inquiry into supply of spurious BT cotton seeds to farmers.
Badal announced SAD would stage a protest at Bathinda on October 3 in case the Punjab Government did not announce the due compensation to the affected farmers as well as the farm labourers. The SAD president visited six villages in Bathinda (rural), Talwandi Sabo and Sardulgarh Assembly constituencies. Meanwhile, when Sukhbir was going to various villages, he faced protests from the farmer unions at Shiekhpura village in Bathinda district. The agitating farmers carrying black flags blocked the road. The police had a tough time in pacifying them. — TNS
Bike rally before ‘Bharat bandh’
To mobilise support for the ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on September 27, scores of farmers carried out a motorcycle rally in the city area and 12 villages in Bathinda.
AAP, SAD seek relief for pest-hit farmers
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