Sirhind (Fatehgarh Sahib): Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today demanded that the Union government must give ‘Royalty on water and food grains’ to the state on the pattern of the same given to other states for supplying coal and other minerals in the country.
Interacting with the media persons on the sidelines of a conference to mark the Shaheedi Jor Mela here today, the Chief Minister said that the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had over exploited the only available natural resources of the state in terms of water and fertility of the soil to make the country self reliant in food production. However he bemoaned that this immense contribution of the state’s farmers’ has never been recognized by the country. Mr. Badal said that it was the high time that the nation must repay the peasantry of the state by giving them royalty on water and food grains supplied to the country.
Modi’s rally in February would act as death knell for Congress
On a query regarding the possibility of Shiromani Akali Dal contesting the Lok Sabha polls from outside the state, the Chief Minister said that any decision regarding it would be taken after thorough deliberations with the BJP. Earlier addressing a mammoth gathering during the conference, the Chief Minister said that the single point agenda of the Shiromani Akali Dal was to make Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country, so that a new era of unprecedented development could be ushered in the state. He said that the ensuing rally of Mr. Modi in the month of February would act as a ‘death knell’ for the Congress as the massive response to rally would wipe out the Congress from the country.
The Chief Minister further said that due to wrong policies of the Congress,Indiawhich was once known as a ‘Golden Sparrow’, today leads the world in poverty. He said that though our country has been blessed with a bounty of natural resources but today it was confronting a number of social maladies like poverty, unemployment, starvation, illiteracy and others. “This government has no moral right to remain in power as it has failed on all the fronts” added Mr. Badal.
Mr. Badal said that though the Congress has left no stone unturned to break the backbone of the farmers of the state by hiking the cost of agricultural inputs but in order to give respite to them the SAD-BJP government had provided free power worth Rs 6000 crore to the farmers.
Paying floral tributes to Mata Gujar Kaur and younger Sahibzadas Baba Jorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh, the Chief Minister said that the supreme sacrifice made by them at a tender age hardly has any parallel in the other part of the world. He said that great Sikh Gurus had taught them to stand against oppression, tyranny and injustice due to which the Punjabis had played a vanguard role in the national freedom struggle and to safeguard the motherland from any sort of aggression.