Don't tell white lies to fool farmers in Gujarat, Akali Dal tells Kejriwal

Chandigarh, Oct 9 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal not to tell "white lies" to fool farmers in the run up to the Gujarat Assembly elections, saying the his government in Punjab had only promised MSP on moong and maize but failed to deliver on both.

In a statement here, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said it was shocking that Kejriwal was claiming in Gujarat the AAP government in Punjab was giving minimum support price (MSP) on five crops and that the same formula would be replicated in Gujarat.

"The truth is that the Central government is procuring wheat and paddy on the MSP in Punjab through the Food Corporation of India. Similarly, the Cotton Corporation of India procures cotton. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had urged farmers to sow moong and promised to procure the entire crop on an MSP of Rs 7,250 per quintal but did not even procure 10 per cent of this crop. The Punjab government has similarly failed to procure the maize crop leaving farmers to their fate."

Telling Kejriwal not to give false hopes to farmers of Gujarat, Cheema said the farmers should come to Punjab and see the ground reality for themselves. "The truth is that farmers have been indebted because they believed the AAP government and went in for large scale cultivation of maize and moong."

The SAD leader said far from giving MSP on all crops, the Punjab government had still not given compensation to farmers whose crops had been damaged due to untimely rains.

He said the government had also not given any compensation to farmers for losses suffered by them due to large-scale attacks of dwarfing virus in the current paddy crop.