Farmers Movement Archive

Centre’s move to stop Rural Development Fund unfortunate: Amarinder Singh

CHANDIGARH: Terming the decision to put Punjab’s Rural Development Fund (RDF) on hold as unfortunate, chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged the Centre to review its decision, as the move will badly impact the rural development works in the state. Questioning the timing of the Centre’s move, Amarinder said there is no precedent of not releasing the RDF that is due to the state, in the name of scrutiny of the utilisation of previous funds. He said he has asked finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal to go to Delhi and the Union minister for consumer affairs to resolve the issue, which has hit the state hard amid the fiscal crisis it is facing. The state government, said Amarinder, would submit all the utilisation details as sought by the Centre, as it has done in the past too. While this is not the first time the government of India has gone for a scrutiny of the utilisation funds, this is, however, a first as far as non-release of the RDF is concerned, he said expressing serious concern over the development. He said doubts are being raised in various quarters about the timing of the Union Cabinet’s decision to not release the RDF to the tune of over Rs 1,000 crore amid the controversy and crisis over the Centre’s farm laws. The timing is suspect and points to dubious motivation behind the move, he said urging the Centre to immediately reconsider and give the state’s dues against RDF while the scrutiny continues. The funds, as the Centre is well aware, are used for developing critical agriculture marketing infrastructure like construction of roads in the rural areas of the state and marketing yards, said Amarinder, adding that failure to release the funds would obstruct the development of villages and could further aggravate the angst of the farmers, who are in a prolonged agitation against the central farm sector legislations.

The Times of India

2020-10-30

Chandigarh