States »NortPosted at: Apr 9 2021 5:45PM SAD asks CM to tell why he kept ryots & arhatiyas in dark on DBT issue
Chandigarh, Apr 9 (UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Friday asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to tell why he had kept the farmers and the ‘arhatiyas’ in the dark vis-a-vis the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme being imposed by the Centre even as it accused him of playing a fixed match with the Centre on this issue.
The party also demanded that more than fifty per cent hike in fertilizer prices announced by the central government be rolled back immediately and asked the chief minister why he was not opposing this measure aimed at punishing farmers for protesting against the three Agricultural laws forcefully.
Addressing a press conference here, senior party leaders Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, Jathedar Tota Singh and Sikander Singh Maluka said the chief minister had made a big show of opposing the DBT scheme and had during a recent meeting with ‘arhatiyas’ announced that come what may all payments for food grain procurement would be routed through them only.
“However the Punjab ministerial team led by finance minister Manpreet Badal abjectly surrendered before the Centre in its meeting with Minister Piyush Goyal Thursday. It is also a fact that the Congress government had committed in writing to implement the scheme from the forthcoming rabi season. Despite this, the government resorted to a drama to befool the people in the same manner as the Congress party befooled and deceived all sections of society with false promises in the 2017 assembly elections”.
Asserting that implementation of the new DBT scheme would increase social strife, Prof Chandumajra said ‘relations between farmers and ‘arhatiyas’ would be poisoned and it would cause immense problems for those who leased out land.
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