Chandigarh, April 5: Reiterating his full support for thefarmers and the Arhtiyas, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh onMonday flayed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government forencroaching upon the rights of the states in its bid to dominate them, whilecastigating it over its one-sided decision to forcibly impose the Farm Laws andthe Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on the state’s farming community.
States never faced such problems earlier, he said, slammingthe Government of India to trying to destroy the existing relations andsystems, that had worked well for more than 100 years, in the name of so-calledreforms, which they were trying to impose without taking the stakeholders intoconfidence.
Punjab’s farmers and arhtiyas have age-old cordial ties,which the Centre was hell bent on damaging, he said, terming the Government ofIndia’s tough posturing and ill-conceived decisions as being against the basicspirit of federalism. He said during his earlier tenure he enjoyed the fullconfidence and support of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, andsubsequently of Dr. Manmohan Singh, in all major policy decisions/developmentissues related to Punjab.
Virtually launching the two-day Kisan Mela organized by thePunjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, the Chief Minister expressedhis total solidarity with the farmers against the black farm laws imposed byCentre, in violation of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution which clearlystates that Agriculture is a state subject.The Centre has deliberately impinged upon the state’s power, thus jeopardizingthe basic structure of democracy, he said.
Captain Amarinder Singh stressed that the Centre should havetaken the farmers into confidence before enactment of these contentiouslegislations. “Had the Centre been sincere about finding a workable solution tothis problem, it would have either consulted the Punjab government or thestate’s farmers, as Punjab alone contributes over 40% of foodgrains to thenational pool,” he asserted.
The Chief Minister categorically said that Punjab, which wasinitially not even a part of the deliberations on the agricultural reforms, wasincluded in the high-powered committee only after he wrote to the Centre.Resultantly, the Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and the then SecretaryAgriculture KS Pannu attended the two meetings held thereafter but there was nomention of these controversial farm laws at the same, he added.
Pointing out that 144 farmers have died so far during theiragitation, he said his government was giving Rs 5 lakhs and a job to a kin ofthe deceased farmer, while the Centre continued to be insensitive to theirpain.
In his address, pointing to the growing problem of scarcityof surface as well as underground water, the Chief Minister urged the farmersto go for drip irrigation in a big way to save the state from becoming a desertin the near future. The fast depleting water table, resulting from the meltingglaciers, is a major challenge for the state and the only solution is to getout of the paddy-wheat cycle to save this precious resource, he said. He askedthe farmers to make optimum use of drip irrigation technology, besidesswitching over to less water consuming crops like vegetables, fruits etc.
He further emphasisedthat efforts should be made to adapt to horticultural crops which have a globalmarket with chances of enormous profitability. The Chief Minister underlinedthe need to save water for the future generations, pointing out that it was asacred duty of every Punjab to conserve this precious resource as preached bythe first Sikh Guru Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He also shared his learning aboutabout drip irrigation, as garnered his during his visit to Israel, where mostof the citrus cultivation, besides tree plantation, is done with dripirrigation.
The Chief Minister also urged the farmers to make minimumuse of pesticides and insecticides as per the recommendations of PAU experts astheir reckless overuse is not only health hazardous but also leads to massscale rejection of food grains, especially basmati rice, thus financially hitting the farmers.
Acknowledging the immense contribution of PAU stalwarts inagricultural research and introduction of new farm practices, Captain AmarinderSingh said that its former VCs like Dr. Khem Singh Gill, Dr. Kirpal SinghAulakh, Dr. Gulzar Singh Kalkat would be always be remembered by one and allfor ushering in the Green Revolution to make India self-reliant in foodproduction, thus saving it from sheer humiliation of begging for PL-480.
Emphasizing the need to develop a viable technology formaking use of paddy straw for power generation, the Chief Minister said abeginning has already been made in the state with production of briquettes forfuel purpose and establishment of small units for generation of power frompaddy straw but a lot still remains to be done.
Lauding the role of Guru Arjan Dev Veterinary & AnimalSciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana, for improving the quality oflivestock, the Chief Minister asked the University to intensify its research todevelop embryo transfer technology to produce female calves of high qualitybreed of buffaloes, like Murrah, Sahiwal and Tharparkar cows.
Taking the opportunity to make people aware about the recent second hike of Covid-19, the ChiefMinister asked them not to be complacent but to take all necessary precautionslike wearing masks, regularly washing hands and maintaining social distancingas per Covid protocols, besides getting vaccinated if they are eligible for thesame. Though the situation in the state,with around 2200 cases and 67 deaths yesterday, was alarming, he would notallow it to become Mumbai with 34,000 cases in a single day, he asserted.
Prominent amongst others present on the occasion wereAdditional Chief Secretary (Development) Anirudh Tiwari, Vice Chancellor PAUDr. Baldev Singh Dhillon and Vice Chancellor Guru Arjan Dev Veterinary &Animal Sciences University Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Ludhiana.