Khattar's claims on farmers' welfare 'shoddy defence': Amarinder

Chandigarh, Aug 31 (IANS) In a hard-hitting response to his Haryana counterpart's tweets questioning him on farmer welfare, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ripped into Manohal Lal Khattar's claims, terming them a "pathetic attempt" to cover up the "sustained and persistently shameful treatment meted out" to farmers by his government.

Terming Khattar's claims and questions as nothing but "a shoddy defence" against the nation-wide criticism of the latest in the series of violent assaults on peacefully protesting farmers by his government, Amarinder Singh said the various statements made by the Haryana Chief Minister in the wake of the baton charge on his own state's farmers had "once again utterly and unequivocally exposed the BJP's anti-farmer mindset".

"Instead of apologising for the unprovoked and unjustified attack on the farmers, Khattar had been brazenly defending the police action and even tried to vindicate the Karnal SDM's shocking instructions to the cops, which the world had seen and condemned," he said.

Rebutting the "atrocious assertions" of the Haryana CM that his government had done more for the farmers than the Punjab government, Amarinder Singh asked Khattar: "If that is the case, then why are your own state's farmers angry with you and your Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?"

"Having failed to convince the people of India that it was Punjab and its farmers who were responsible for the prolonged agitation against the farm laws at the Delhi borders, Khattar was now resorting to blatant lies and exaggerated claims," Amarinder Singh said, adding that "indulging in this petty data crunching will not condone Haryana government's excesses against the farmers".

Far from ensuring the welfare of farmers, the Khattar government had actively damaged their interests, said the Punjab Chief Minister, countering the former's claims with a list of pro-farmer initiatives and schemes initiated by his government despite the "fiscal mess" he inherited from the BJP-SAD government back in 2017.

"Your party left us without money even to pay our employees, and yet, we have successfully waived off Rs 4,624.38 crore in debt of 564,143 small and marginal farmers till date, with another Rs 590 crore sanctioned for loan waiver of 2.85 lakh landless farmers and labourers," said Amarinder Singh, dismissing Khattar's "nonsensical claims of leading a pro-farmer government".

Noting that Haryana does not give a single paisa to its farmers in power subsidy, the Chief Minister said in Punjab, power subsidy of Rs 7,200 crore of (about Rs 17,000 per hectare) is being provided every year for agriculture pump-sets of farmers.