India News | BJP Defaming Punjab Farmers to Divert People's Attention from Guj Bridge Collapse

Chandigarh, Nov 3 (PTI) The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab on Thursday accused the BJP-led Centre of defaming the state's farmers for farm fires to divert people's attention from the Morbi suspension bridge collapse in Gujarat.

The BJP government at the Centre through the National Green Tribunal is pressuring officers in Punjab to register cases against farmers for stubble burning, the AAP's state unit chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang alleged.

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He also told reporters here that the BJP is trying to take revenge from farmers for forcing the Centre to repeal three farm laws.

Kang said despite air quality in several cities of Haryana being far worse than that of places in Punjab, the BJP is consistently blaming the state's farmers for pollution.

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Besides the Centre, the BJP is also in power in Haryana and poll-bound Gujarat where the bridge collapse claimed over 130 lives.

"To divert the attention of the people from the issue of the Morbi bridge collapse incident, the BJP is defaming farmers of Punjab and blaming them for rising pollution," Kang said.

He claimed that a clock-making company was given the contract to maintain the over century-old suspension bridge. The company did not have any experience in maintenance of bridges, the AAP leader alleged.

There has been an almost a 40 per cent reduction in the area where stubble was burnt in comparison to last year in Punjab, Kang claimed.

"This season, the stubble of 2.90 lakh hectares of the area was burnt as compared to five lakh hectares last year," he said.

He also accused the BJP and the Centre of unleashing a slanderous campaign against farmers in Punjab by squarely blaming them for environmental hazards.

"The BJP should clear its stand that why their leaders are silent over far more worst air quality in Faridabad, Manesar, Gurugram and Sonipat (Haryana), and Gwalior and Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and other states where the saffron party is in power," he asked.

Kang said Punjab has 31 lakh hectares of area under paddy while neighbouring Haryana has 11 lakh hectares.

"This year, the Punjab government gave more than 35,000 machines (for stubble management) to farmers," the AAP leader said, adding that 1.26 lakh machines have been distributed to farmers in Punjab in the last five years.

He dared Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to tell the people what he has done to ameliorate the situation of pollution in the state and how many crop residue management machines have been distributed among farmers to tackle stubble burning cases.

Kang lashed out at BJP and said that the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had proposed a solution of offering a cash incentive of Rs 2,500 per acre to farmers for not burning paddy straw. However, he said instead of accepting this proposal, the Centre had blatantly refused to bail out farmers.

The AAP government had proposed that the Centre give Rs 1,500 per acre, and Delhi and Punjab governments will give Rs 500 each to farmers for stubble management.

(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)