After SAD, Cong seeks fiscal package from Centre
Tuesday, 31/07/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120731/punjab.htm#7
After Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, it was Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sunil Jakhar who today sought a relief package from the Centre. Jakhar has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release Rs 2,000 crore for the state farmers and small-scale industrialists who had been hit by deficit rain.
In a statement here today, Jakhar said the package should have clearly marked subheads so that the money reached the beneficiaries directly and was not “misappropriated” by the state government.
The CLP leader said the Rs 800 crore package demanded by the state government to purchase power for paddy season was inadequate. He claimed the state government had forgotten to include the amount spent by farmers from their own pockets on diesel to run tubewells and by the industrialists to purchase inputs, costs of which spiralled due to lack of rains.
Jakhar said in 2010, the Centre had given a package of Rs 800 crore to Punjab, but only Rs 300 crore reached the farmers. In a separate statement, a few Congress MLAs demanded that a special bonus of Rs 600 per quintal on the minimum support price (MSP) should be given to farmers in Punjab, cost of which should be shared equally by the Centre and the state government.
Congress MLAs Laal Singh, Parminder Singh, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Navtej Singh Cheema, Sangat Singh Ghilchia, Sham Sunder Arora, Tarlochan Singh Soond, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Harchand Kaur urged the Prime Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene in the matter immediately.
