Centre, FCI behind tardy paddy lifting: AAP

Chandigarh Police use water cannons to disperse ministers, party activists trying to gherao BJP’s office

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Updated At : 06:05 AM Oct 31, 2024 IST

AAP Cabinet ministers and activists stage a protest outside the state BJP’s office in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photos: Vicky

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today held a protest against the Centre over tardy procurement and lifting of foodgrain from mandis.

As AAP leaders tried to gherao the state BJP’s office in Chandigarh, the UT police used water cannons to stop them. In the melee, Cabinet Minister Harjot Singh Bains’ turban fell off, which escalated

the matter.

The AAP leadership accused the BJP of spreading rumours to hide their misdeeds. They said the Centre and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) were responsible for tardy lifting.

Besides Bains, ministers Harbhajan Singh, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, Lal Chand Kataruchak, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Laljit Singh Bhullar, Ravjot Singh, Hardeep Singh Mundia and the party's working president Budh Ram took part in the protest.

**AAP Cabinet ministers and activists stage a protest outside the state BJP’s office in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photos: Vicky**

Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh said, “Every year in October, paddy arrives at mandis. However, this time, the Centre deliberately didn’t lift the old grain from godowns. Now, the markets are overflowing with paddy. Farmers, traders, sheller owners and labourers are all distressed, but the Centre is not listening.”

The Punjab Government had been asking the FCI to remove stock from godowns for the past eight months, said AAP leaders, adding that even Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had met Union Ministers in this regard, but to no avail.

“Our demonstration is in support of farmers, labourers, traders and sheller owners, but against the Central Government. We will fight for the rights of farmers until the end and will ensure a solution to the problem,” he said.

Minister Bains said the Centre has always wronged Punjab. “Today I am not here as a minister, an MLA, or as a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, but as the son of a farmer from Punjab,” he said.

Bains said his ancestors worked hard to make the land of Punjab cultivable and it's extremely unfortunate that while people across the country were celebrating Diwali, farmers in Punjab were struggling in the mandis.

“Their fault is that they fought against the BJP government's black agricultural laws,” he added.