Partap Singh Bajwa, the leader of the opposition (LoP), blasted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Sunday for deceiving Punjab’s rice growers on a 2,500 cash incentive that was announced to deter them from burning the paddy stubble. In a statement, Bajwa claimed that the AAP’s broken promise caused the paddy growers to be obliged to burn the residue, which worsened the Air Quality Index in Punjab’s major cities.
‘The state has crossed 12,000 cases of stubble burning with above 8000 cases taking place last week. The AQI in some major cities including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar Patiala, Bathinda, and Chandigarh has reached from moderate to poor,’ he said.
The Congress leader claimed that even though the AAP government has been in office for more than seven months and is well aware of the stubble burning problem in the state, they have been unable to develop a workable solution. He said that the AAP government has suggested paying paddy farmers Rs. 2,500 per acre, with the Centre contributing Rs. 1,500 and the Punjab and Delhi governments contributing Rs. 1,000 each.
‘Since the Centre Government has rejected the AAP’s proposal to provide Rs 1500, it is the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government’s responsibility to pay Rs 2,500 per acre to paddy farmers. The farmers burn the paddy straw not out of choice, but out of compulsion. Therefore, without any financial assistance from the government, farmers find it very difficult to deal with the situation,’ he said.
Bajwa brought up Kejriwal’s election program in Punjab, in which he promised to provide farmers incentives to stop burning paddy straw. He questioned the chief ministers of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, and Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, for forsaking their prior pledge to pay farmers 2,500 rupees per acre as payment for avoiding burning crop residue.
‘The AAP (Advertisement, Announcement, and Publicity) government should have compromised on the advertisement budget for the sake of the environment in Punjab,’ he said.
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