Punjab CM meets PM Modi, seeks farm loan waiver

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo courtesy: Punjab CMO

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday defended his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu’s decision to continue with his television show saying Sidhu was an intelligent man and was earning his own keep.

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“He is earning his own keep. What objection can we have to someone earning his own money by his own means? People can have professions and run businesses.

However, we have asked the Punjab AG for an opinion and may change Mr Sidhu’s portfolio as Culture and Tourism Minister if we are advised to. If it is constitutionally fine for people to earn their own money, we can have no objections,” Singh said outside Parliament House where he had come to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Singh asked the PM for a debt loan waiver for Punjab farmers. Earlier he met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asking him for Rs 20,653 crore for crop procurement which is to begin soon after wheat lands in Punjab mandis in about two to three days.

Later in the day, Singh will pay a courtesy call on President Pranab Mukherjee.Singh evaded queries on the efficiency of EVMs after his senior party colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad blamed EVM malfunction for Congress-SP combine’s UP loss in the Rajya Sabha today.”Mr Azad is Congress incharge for UP. I can only answer questions related to Punjab,” Singh said.He praised Congress strategist Prashant Kishor for a win in Punjab saying Kishor fought well for one year and so did his team of I-PAC volunteers.