ribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 22
Even as he slammed the Akalis and the AAP for spreading lies over the Farm Laws, and dubbed the Centre’s refusal to repeal them as “inhuman”, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday announced jobs for one member of each of the families of the state’s farmers who had lost their lives in the farmers’ agitation, a press release by the state government read.
Questioning “why the Centre is hesitating to repeal the laws?”, the Chief Minister said it should repeal the laws and then sit with the farmers to frame new laws after taking all stakeholders in confidence.
Hitting out at the Central Government for pushing the laws through Parliament without any discussion, the Chief Minister said the entire country was paying the price for this.
“Is there a Constitution in the country? Agriculture is a state subject under Schedule 7, so why has the Centre interfered with a state subject?” he asked.
Also read: Punjab, Haryana farmers to set out for tractor parade in Delhi on Saturday
Asserting that “we are with farmers and will stand by them”, the Chief Minister, during the 20th edition of his Facebook Live #AskCaptain session, said the Punjab government and every person in Punjab stands with farmers.
“The sad part,” said the Chief Minister, “was that we are losing our farmers to the cold every day, with an estimated farmers 76 dying so far.”
In addition to the Rs 5 lakh compensation being given to the families of the deceased farmers, his government would also give a job to a family member, he added.
Stressing that representatives of almost all farm unions from across the country were sitting at the Delhi borders, the Chief Minister said the agitation was of the entire nation’s farmers and not just of Punjab’s farmers.