Union Food Processing Industry minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who has always raised the issues of farmers vociferously in parliament, today said Punjab deserved a special financial package and that she had always been in the forefront for raising this demand.Rubbishing opposition charges on a special package to Punjab, Mrs. Badal said “Being a Union minister, I will leave no stone unturned for getting a special package as the state has contributed to the national freedom struggle, made the country self-reliant in food production, safeguarded the borders from external invasion and preserved the country’s unity and integrity.” Stating that the opposition as well as political discards who did not even know which party they belonged to, were feeling frustrated at their repeated rejection by the people and were now trying to create issues where none existed. “I would like to place on the record that any issue connected with Punjab matters to me as a Punjabi. I have always fought and raised the issue of plight of farmers in parliament. How can I ever say that Punjab never needs a special package?
Mrs Badal said political discards who were trying to project themselves as well wishers of farmers should look into their past conduct, including public statements saying the Punjab government should do away with the free power subsidy to farmers. “Such people, who have never supported the cause of farmers, have no right to speak on farmer issues”, she said.The Union Minister said a special economic package was a legitimate demand of the State as Punjab had suffered a lot during the period of terrorism. She said she had even requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to consider the State’s demand sympathetically.Mrs Badal also pointed out that successive Congress governments at the Centre were responsible for breaking the peasantry’s back. She said Punjab had benefited immensely from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule at the Centre, but one year was too short a period to evaluate any government’s performance. “I am confident the NDA will end the saga of discrimination and sheer injustice meted out to Punjab by successive Congress governments at the centre”, she added.
The minister pointed out that recently in Bathinda she talked only about compensation for farmers who were victims of whitefly attack. She said Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal has already announced a package of Rs. 600 crore to be disbursed amongst farmers whose crops were damaged by whitefly attack in the state. She said the Congress and some political discards were politicising and blowing the issue out of proportion and misleading farmers for vested political interests. “We are firmly behind the hard working and resilient farmers of the state to help them in this hour of crisis", she added.Mrs Badal said it was on record that whenever farmers in Punjab faced any sort of problem, the SAD-BJP alliance government had always come to their rescue. Due to concerted efforts of the SAD-BJP government Prime Minister Narendra Modi had increased relief for cotton farmers from Rs. 3600 to per acre to Rs. 8,000 per acre, part of which was being paid by the State government. The Punjab CM has already released Rs 600 Crore for this purpose, she added.