New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday appealed to the Union government to accept demands of farmers, including making minimum support price (MSP) a legal guarantee, to save the life of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, whose fast unto death has entered the 21st day.
While raising the issue of Dallewal’s health in the Lok Sabha, Harsimrat Badal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to accept all the demands of the farmers while repealing the three agriculture laws four years back.
“A promise was made to constitute a committee which would consider all the demands of the farmers but despite the martyrdom of 700 farmers during the Kisan Andolan, these demands have still not been accepted.”
Harsimrat Badal said it was unfortunate that despite directions by the Supreme Court to both the state and the Centre to persuade Dallewal to end his fast, the Centre had deputed a low-level official who had nothing to offer and simply asserted he had come to hear the views of the farmers.
She said urgent action was needed to save Dallewal’s life and to do so the Centre should accept his demands, including those on the MSP, debt waiver and pension for farmers and agricultural workers, an assurance that electricity tariff for the farm sector would not be increased, withdrawal of police cases and justice for those affected by the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
She also slammed Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for failing to impress the sensitivity of the issue to the Union government with the farmer leader’s fast unto death entering the 21st day. “The AAP government has completely failed to present the enormity of the situation to the Union government,” she added.
–IANS
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