Chalk Out Action Plan to Make Agriculture Profitable : Parkash Singh Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Centre to constitute a committee to chalk out an action plan to make agriculture a profitable venture so that farmers don't commit suicide. Agriculture is facing an acute crisis and the need of the hour was to save it, so as to ensure that country's food security was not in peril, Mr Badal told media persons on the sidelines of a function to observe martyrdom day of Parja Mandal leader Shahed Bhagat Singh Dhandogal.

He said that the committee should be asked to give its recommendations at the earliest and the Union government must take no time in implementing it. "Agriculture is no longer a profitable venture as its input cost have increased manifold whereas the farmers are not getting remunerative prices of their harvest," Mr Parkash Singh Badal added.

The Chief Minister said that the powers regarding agriculture in the country were in the hands of the Centre and the state governments have hardly any role in fixing the prices of crops or the agriculture inputs.

Mr Parkash Singh Badal said that he had been raising the issue of agrarian crisis with the past and the current government at the Centre with a plea that the formula given by renowned agri-scientist Dr M S Swaminathan, regarding fixation of MSP of crops, must be implemented for the safeguarding the interests of the peasantry."Any further delay in this regard will prove fatal and the agriculture in the country will be ruined," he added. The Chief Minister said that it was unfortunate that even after passing of more than 67 years of independence the dreams of the freedom fighters have not been fulfilled yet. 

Parkash Singh Badal Asks Capt Amarinder To Desist From Stooping Too Low For Sake Of Cheap Publicity

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the former Chief Minister and Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh to desist from ‘stooping too low’ just for the sake of cheap publicity. Interacting with the media persons here on the sidelines of Sangat Darshan program in Baba Bakala assembly segment, the Chief Minister, while asking Lok Sabha MP to refrain from misleading the people through his irrational and baseless statements, said that Amarinder ‘lacks substance’ and was habitual of issuing false statements just to score brownie points before the media. 

Refuting all the allegations leveled by former Chief Minister regarding misuse of power, he said that Amarinder had been leveling such allegations since long but not even his single charge has proved correct despite of his all efforts. However, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal said that former Chief Minister has not learnt any lesson from the past and was trying to befool the people by relentlessly issuing irrelevant statements. The Chief Minister said that the political leaders must refrain from malicious campaign against each other just for the sake of their vested political interests. Mr. Badal said that throughout his political career spanning over more than six decades he had been a votary of morality in politics. “I avoid mudslinging against even my bitter political foes as it is against my ethics” he added.

Asked to comment on the allegations of drug trade against aides of state BJP Chief Mr. Kamal Sharma, the Chief Minister said that law would take its own course in this case. He said that enquiry was going on in this matter and it was not correct to make any comment on this issue at this stage. Earlier addressing the gatherings during Sangat Darshan in village Jullupur Kheda, Pheruman, Umranangal and Beas besides Raiyya city, the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal slammed the former Congress Chief Ministers for completing ignoring the interest of the state and its people. Mr. Badal said that while he was moving from village to village for solving the problems faced by people his predecessor Captain Amarinder Singh didn’t bothered to meet the people during his stint as Chief Minister from 2002-2007. He categorically said that Amarinder had never bothered to visit the villages in the state or interact with the people. Referance