Chandigarh, January 20, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
Reacting to the two-percent reduction in Punjab’s Rural Development Fund (RDF) by the central government, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president and MP Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was taking revenge of the farmers’ movement from the people of Punjab by deliberately slashing two percent in the Punjab government’s Rural Development Fund (RDF).
He said with this decision of the Modi government, the revenue of Punjab government would reduce by about Rs 800 crores and there would be problems in public welfare works in rural areas of the state.
Mann said that by slashing the RDF, that started in 1987, the Modi government was trying to attack the federal system of the country. He said the money with which the Punjab government used to assure the farmers to protect themselves from crop damage and used to get works related to street lights, dharamshala, panchayat buildings and drinking water, done in rural areas of Punjab; the Modi government by reducing that money was trying to disrupt the development works of Punjab.
“The central government’s deliberate reduction in the money used to facilitate the farmers and common people of Punjab, proves that how the Modi government wants to misuse the central power and suppress those who oppose it,” said Mann.
He further said that most of the people of Punjab who were protesting against the black laws by joining the farmers’ movement on the Delhi borders, were farmers and residents of villages. Therefore, the Modi government had decided to slash the RDF money under a conspiracy, he added.
Slamming PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, he said that first they tried to discredit the farmers’ movement, then the Modi government tried to buy farmer leaders. “When they failed to buy the farmers, they started intimidating them by misusing the central investigative agencies and sending notices through the NIA, against those who collaborated in the movement,” said Mann.
He said now that all their conspiracies had failed, the Modi government was threatening the people by slashing the amount of money to be spent on the development work of the farmers sitting on the Delhi borders and people of Punjab.
Accusing Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh of colluding with Modi-Shah, the AAP leader further said that the central government was attacking the state’s revenue and conspiring to disrupt the development works of Punjab, but the Chief Minister remained silent on it. “Fearing from ED, Captain always tries to avoid speaking against the Modi government.
Captain Amarinder can cheat the people and farmers of Punjab to save his son from ED raids. The CM just pretends to be farmer friendly,” said Mann. He added that to hide his failures, Captain had done a deal of the interests of Punjab, with Modi-Shah and despite the loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to Punjab, he did not even utter a word against Modi-Shah, due to ED’s fear.
