Chandigarh, Jan 24 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party Sunday attacked Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over the three contentious farm legislations, alleging he was "aware" well in advance that these laws were being brought by the Centre, and yet he remained "silent", a claim the Congress leader termed "brazen lies".

"We have conclusive proof that reveals that all the three black farm laws were discussed by the high-powered Committee on agriculture," AAP's national spokesperson and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha said in a statement here.

"As far back as on August 7, 2019, he knew about the members of the Committee and the agenda of this committee. He knew that these controversial laws are being discussed and yet remained tight-lipped," Chadha alleged, citing a copy of an RTI reply.

Chadha asked Singh as to why he did not place his dissent before the high-powered committee about the three black farm laws. "Why didn't you insist on the induction of farm unions and farm leaders, who would be directly aggrieved and impacted by these black laws," he further asked.

Reacting to the accusations, Singh said the charges show AAP's desperation.

"The non-evidence shared by the party to support their baseless allegations had shown the extent of their desperation and exposed the shocking levels of deceit to which they had stooped in the pursuit of their politically motivated agenda," he said in a statement here.

Calling Chadha a "nobody" in Punjab's political arena, Singh rejected his charges on committee saying while the AAP leader was raising questions by sharing a copy of the final list of the high-powered committee members, dated August 7, 2019, the original committee (minus Punjab) was actually set up on June 15, 2019.

"Don't you understand the difference between Punjab not originally being included in the Committee and being named a member after I personally wrote to the Centre on the issue? How does flaunting the final list, in which Punjab was included after my intervention prove me wrong," asked the Chief Minister.

The CM said Punjab was not part of the committee when its first meeting was held. "And after Punjab's inclusion at my behest, one meeting had discussed financial issues, with Finance Minister Manpreet Badal in attendance, while the last had only Agriculture Secretary as the invited participant."

Singh further said that even the agenda of the committee which the AAP was repeatedly referring to in a bid to support its "lies", never mentioned any farm laws or new legislations.

This was again a matter of record, he said, pointing to the terms of reference of the committee.

He further added that his cabinet colleague Manpreet Badal had already released the minutes of the committee meeting attended by him and the Punjab government's note to the Centre.

Meanwhile, FM Badal also stated that the minutes of the meeting of the high-powered committee clearly show that the three contentious farm bills were never brought up or discussed in "any meeting" with the government of Punjab or with any state minister.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)