Harsimrat Kaur seeks financial package for Punjab

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Bathinda's Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday asked the Centre to give a financial package to Punjab to compensate its farmers for the huge losses suffered by them due to recent flooding following incessant rains as well as repeated crop failures.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Harsimrat also requested Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to sanction funds for upgrading the trauma centre in AIIMS Bathinda to 300 beds. She said the institute's emergency block could handle only 28 emergencies.

"Since three national highways and two stage highways crisscross the city leading to a high incidence of accidents besides the presence of both the army and air force cantonments, the trauma centre in AIIMS Bathinda should be upgraded immediately."

She also accused the state's AAP government was failing in its duty to implement the Ayushman Bharat Sehat Bima Yojna and how Rs 300 crore was due to private and government hospitals in the state.

Claiming Punjabis had been denied health cover insurance with both the previous Congress government as well as the current AAP dispensation failing to take any action against the insurance company which had defaulted on its contract, she requested the Union Health Minister to take action against both government functionaries and the insurance company which had scammed the people of Punjab.

Earlier while demanding a financial package for Punjab farmers, Harsimrat Kaur highlighted how they had suffered losses in rearing both the previous wheat crop and the present paddy crop, besides witnessing three successive failures of their cotton crop.

She said while the wheat yield in Punjab had decreased due to sudden increase in temperature in March, the current paddy crop had been damaged due to flooding caused by incessant rains in the Malwa region.

She alleged that the AAP government had failed to do anything for the suffering farmers with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann conducting an aerial tour rather than meeting farmers and providing relief to them.

Farmers also suffered a loss because of the "callousness" of the AAP government with Mann urging farmers to sow 'moong' and promising to procure it at a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 7,225 but leaving them to the mercy of private players, she added.

"While four lakh tonnes of moong arrived in the state mandis, only 10 per cent of this was procured by government agencies," she added.