The Shiromani Akali Dal Tuesday accused chief minister Amarinder Singh of “playing a hoax on the ‘annadaata’ (farmers)” by not forwarding the resolution rejecting the three farm ordinances, passed at a special Assembly session on August 28, to the Centre. It also demanded that CM call a special session of the House immediately to abrogate the state APMC Act and declare the entire Punjab as a principal market area. Talking to media at the residence of senior party leader Jathedar Tota Singh, Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said that in a month's time after the House passed the resolution “the ordinances were taken up as Bills, ratified by the Parliament but have now become Acts after receiving the approval of the President”. Accusing Captain of playing double game, Sukhbir asked him to tell farmers why he got the resolution passed if he did not have any intention to forward it to Parliament and the central government. “The resolution first took 12 days to be sent from the Vidhan Sabha to the chief secretary whose office is next door. It has been lying on the chief secretary’s table for nearly 20 days now. Not only does this speak of the utter callousness and insensitivity of the Congress government towards farmers and their cause but also exposes a deep rooted conspiracy to thwart them from their goal of achieving justice in the case”. Sukhbir said the SAD would stand farmer organizations in whatever course of action is decided by them. Earlier, while addressing a large congregation at Gurdwara Bibi Kahan Kaur, Sukhbir said the CM also owed an explanation for the perfidy committed by him by amending the APMC Act in 2017. He said this amendment legalized private mandis, contract farming and e-trading – the very provisions the farmers were fighting against presently. Meanwhile, addressing media in Amritsar, senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia again asked CM to call a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha immediately to abrogate the state APMC Act and declare the entire state as a Principal Market Area. “If Amarinder doesn’t heed our demand, which is also the demand of farmers, then SAD will gherao his residence,” he said, while demanding that FCI as well as private corporates be brought under APMC ambit. He accused Amarinder of “playing a friendly match with those in the Union government to befool and mislead the Punjab farmers with false bluster even as refuses to do anything concrete to block the implementation of the three anti-farmer Acts in the state.” Talking about the resolution against the farm ordinances passed by the Assembly, Majithia said, “It is shocking that the resolution is still gathering dust in the office of the Chief Secretary. Do you think any officer can have the courage to defy the House if he did not have the CM's instructions to do so?" Majithia said that the SAD would bring a motion to ask the Punjab government to block the implementation of the central Acts by declaring the whole of the state a notified mandi. “This is the only way to save Punjab farmers from this deadly trap laid by the Centre’s Acts. It is a shame that Rajasthan has already done it while the government of the country’s leading agricultural state, Punjab, is still refusing to do it," said Majithia. Majithia said that the SAD would bring another motion to demand the abrogation of the APMC Act as implemented in Punjab by Amarinder.
