Bypolls: Punjab failed to safeguard interests of farmers, says Anurag Thakur

Barnala (Punjab), Nov 11 (IANS) Senior BJP leader and chief whip in Lok Sabha Anurag Thakur on Monday said the AAP-led Punjab government has failed to safeguard interests of farmers in the state. 

Addressing the media along with BJP candidate from the Barnala Assembly seat Kewal Singh Dhillon, Thakur raised concerns over the condition of the state under the AAP helm.

"The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that farmer Jaswinder Singh from Nadampur village of Bhawanigarh in Sangrur, the constituency of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, committed suicide. The poor farmer was not able to sell his paddy on MSP (minimum support price) and hence ended up taking his own precious life,” said the former Union Minister.

He said the delay in issuing notification for procurement and not addressing issues of the rice millers at the right time has left the entire paddy procurement in the doldrums. “Already the Central government had timely issued Rs 44,000 crore to ensure smooth paddy procurement in the state, but the Punjab government failed to implement a proper plan for the procurement.”

Thakur said while the Central government has launched free food grains for the poor and treatment through the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the AAP-led Punjab government “was hell-bent on snatching the schemes from its people. While the free ration scheme has been discontinued in Punjab, the state has refused to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme that could give relief to people”.

He said while the Chief Minister himself goes for treatment to private hospitals, he does not care for his own people and denied the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat scheme to the people of Punjab.

Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of development, Thakur said when elected to power, the BJP would ensure that a multi-specialty hospital is constructed in Barnala so that people do not have to travel to get good treatment.

The Election Commission has rescheduled Assembly bypolls for four seats in Punjab from November 13 to November 20 in view of festivals.

Besides Punjab, nine seats are going to polls in Uttar Pradesh and one in Kerala.

The four Assembly segments in Punjab are Gidderbaha, Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.

Punjab's four Assembly seats -- three represented by the Congress and one by AAP -- fell vacant after MLAs from these constituencies were elected to the Lok Sabha this year.