Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh announces jobs for kin of farmers who died during stir

CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday announced jobs for one member each of the families of Punjab farmers who lost their lives during the agitation against the “black laws”. This would be in addition to the Rs 5 lakh compensation being given to the families of the deceased farmers, he said during the 20th edition of his Facebook Live #AskCaptain session. Questioning the Centre’s “hesitancy to repeal the laws”, Amarinder said they should repeal the laws, then sit with the farmers and frame new laws after taking all stakeholders into confidence. Pointing out that the Constitution had already been amended so many times, he said there was no reason why the Centre should be so adamant about not rolling back the farm laws. Hitting out at the Centre for pushing the laws through Parliament with brute majority, without any discussion, Capt Amarinder said the entire country was paying the price for it. “Is there a Constitution in the country? Agriculture is a state subject under Schedule 7, so why has the Centre interfered with a state subject?” he asked. “They went and enacted these laws without consulting anyone, because of which we have all landed in this situation,” he added. “Barely were things returning to normal after the (Covid-19) lockdown, when the entire industry had shut down operations, when the farm laws were imposed,” he said, adding that the legislations had been implemented without any thought to the impact it would have on farmers and agriculture. The chief minister claimed that the Punjab government and every person in Punjab was standing with the farmers. “All Punjabis are concerned about our farmers sitting on Delhi borders. They are there to persuade the Centre to repeal the laws that were implemented without taking us into confidence,” he said. “Lots of old people are sitting there at the borders, not for themselves, but for the future of their children and grandchildren. The sad part is that we are losing our farmers to the cold every day, with an estimated 76 farmers having died so far,” he added. Asked whether there was democracy any more in this country, he replied, “You should ask the Centre whether India is not a democracy anymore?” He also agreed to a viewpoint that the farm laws should be repealed as the farmers, for whom they are made, don’t want them, saying: “It is against humanity.” He went on to add that when representatives of almost all farm unions from across the country were sitting at the Delhi borders, the agitation was of the entire nation’s farmers and not just of those from Punjab. Medical College to start In response to a Kapurthala youth’s question, Amarinder said admissions to Kapurthala Medical College will start by August this year. As for the over bridge work for Amritsar Joda Fatak, he informed an Amritsar resident that the entire amount of Rs 25 crore for the underpass had been deposited by the Improvement Trust with the Railways, which had invited the tenders. He said the allotment process was in the final stage and work was expected to start soon. On NIA notices to farmersOn the NIA notices to some farmers and supporters of the farmer agitation, he said it was a wrong step and that he would write to the Union home minister soon on the issue. Even Khalsa Aid, which was working across the globe, had not been spared, he said.

The Times of India

2021-01-23

Chandigarh