SAD demands hike in compensation for land taken from farmers; submits memo to Punjab Guv

The main face of the opposition in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal’s President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday made a series of demands ahead of the state government for the welfare of the state farmers and announced that the Akali Dal will take out a tractor March on Sep 29 from Mohali to CM residence, alleging that Punjab farmers have been robbed of thousands of crores.

The SAD leader, along with other party members on Thursday paid a visit to the state governor Banwarilal Purohit to hand over the party’s memo, demanding a 100% hike in compensation to the farmers whose lands were acquired by the government for the Bharatmala Project. The Bharatmala project also called Bharatmala Pariyojna is a centrally sponsored project to build roads and highways.

Akali Dal demands compensations for Farmers

Highlighting the issue affecting several farmers, Sukhbir Singh Badal, while speaking to ANI, said “We met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and submitted a memorandum demanding adequate compensation to farmers on their land procured to build roads under the Bharat Mala project.” 

The Ferozepur MLA also took to his Twitter account to share the memo. In the tweet he mentioned that “Shiromani Akali Dal has submitted a memo to the Punjab governor, demanding at least a 100% hike in compensation to farmers for land being acquired under Bharatmala road Project. Punjab farmers have been robbed of over Rs 25,000 CR. The Shiromani Akali Dal will hold a Tractor march from Mohali to CM residence on Sep 29.”

In another tweet, Sukhbir Singh Badal also demanded that the state government should take cognisance of the massive cotton crop destruction in the Mansa & Bhatinda area and other parts of the cotton-producing belt, and should immediately announce compensation for the farmers who have lost all their produce, because of the pest attack. He alleged that the farmers were provided with ‘spurious’ seeds & fertilizers, which has led to the destruction of crops grown over thousands of acres of the land.

He continued to add in the short video that a similar pest attack had happened on the cotton crops during SAD’s Sardar Parkash Singh Badal’s rule, “At that time our government had allotted a huge compensation of around 600-700 crore for farmers.” he said. He requested the government to immediately release the compensation to the farmers of the cotton belt, who have ploughed their crops after being destroyed by the Pink bollworm attack.

Image: Twitter