Malout, July 11 – Farmers from across Punjab and neighbouring areas today gave a rousing welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the largest of its kind thanksgiving rally held here to felicitate him for the historic increase in msp of paddy and cotton besides other Kharif crops.
The rally, which saw an outpouring of humanity with Lakhs of farmers congregating here, witnessed SAD patron S Parkash Singh Badal and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal besides Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar thanking the Prime Minister for coming to the aid of farmers who had been cheated and betrayed by the Congress party for 55 years.
The rally witnessed the Prime Minister launching a scorching attack on the Congress government in Punjab saying the State was going down ever since S Parkash Singh Badal gave up the reins of the State. Terming Mr Badal as the champion of farmers, he said Punjabis should ask the Congress government why it had gone down in ease of doing business as per the World Bank report. He also asked the Punjab government to hurry up and give needed clearances so that the Rs 1,000 crore AIIMS project could take off.
Speaking on the occasion, SAD president Sukhbir Badal said the country saw Congress Prime ministers holding the roost for 55 years. “None did anything for the farmers and it is only Modi ji who promised 50 per cent profit on input costs and delivered on it as per the Swaminathan Commission report”.
Thanking the PM for working to solve the problems of farmers, Mr Sukhbir Badal said it was also for the first time that a formula had been set to calculate msp of crops which would result in commensurate hikes in forthcoming years also. He also congratulated five time chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal for his long fight to ensure increase in msp as per Swaminathan Commission report and taking up this issue with the Prime Minister also”.
Speaking about the hike in msp, the SAD president said in case of paddy crop an increase of Rs 200 per quintal had led to Rs 6,000 per acre profit to farmers. He said similarly cotton farmers would earn an additional Rs 10,000 per acre due to Rs 1100 per quintal increase in msp. He said even ‘arhatiyas’ would earn an additional Rs 100 crore and the Punjab government a few hundred crore on account of market and rural development fee. “I am surprised that chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh did not go to Delhi to thank the PM for this largesse”, he added.
Mr Sukhbir Badal also thanked Mr Modi for giving Rs 40,000 crore to the State for road infrastructure besides Mohali and other airports, AIIMS at Bathinda, IIM at Amritsar beside Rs 800 crore to sugarcane farmers and three food parks as well as 17 cold chains benefiting lakhs of farmers.
The SAD president also thanked Mr Modi for fulfilling demand of doing away with GST burden on langar besides requesting him to take steps to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji and ensuring justice for 1984 anti- Sikh genocide orchestrated by Gandhi family through the likes of Sajjan Kumar.
Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal while terming the msp felicitation function as marking of a golden day for Punjab, said Congress rule had demoralised farmers and driven them to suicide. He said in direct contrast PM Narendra Modi had with his dynamic leadership raised India’s prestige in the comity of nations. “We can now say with pride that India has become an economic and military super power. What did not happen in 70 years has become a reality in four years. It is nothing less than the work of a magician”, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the SAD was a trusted partner of NDA and expressed his gratitude to S Parkash Singh Badal for the opportunity to meet him. Mr Modi said farmers did not progress during 55 years of Congress rule because the party never fulfilled its responsibility towards them. He said unscientific schemes were initiated for farmers even as the focus of repeated Congress governments was to realise the dreams of one family.
Mr Modi said it was left to the NDA to protect the interests of soldiers and farmers both. He said besides ensuring one rank one pension for army men, the government had ensured one and a half times return on input costs to farmers. He said this had understandably given sleepless nights to the Congress which was trying to mislead people on this issue. He also expressed his commitment to observe the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji by terming the Guru as a ‘margdarshak’ for humanity.
More than a lakh farmers congregated at today’s rally despite the scorching heat as well as paddy sowing season. Thousands of farmers were stranded outside the rally site because of traffic jams. Those inside greeted the PM enthusiastically with chants of Modi Modi besides shouting slogans in favour of S Parkash Singh Badal and S Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP Punjab President Shwet Malik. Those present including union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Vijay Sampla besides MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Balwinder Singh Bhundur and Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sikander singh maluka & senior BJP leaders Avinash Rai Khanna and Tarun Chugh, Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala and Rajasthan minister Surinder Pal. EOM
