Badal appeals to farmers to end stir; promises help

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today appealed to the agitating farmers to call off their stir, saying the government is ready to accept every genuine demand of theirs and would leave no stone unturned to bail the distressed farmers out of the severe crisis.
In a statement issued here, he said the ruling SAD has always been a votary of the farmers and their rights and that the government has always taken appropriate steps to safeguard the interests of the farmers.
Blaming the previous Congress governments at the Centre for the farmers' distress, Badal said the SAD-BJP alliance government has taken a slew of historic initiatives to bail out the farmers.

He said the state government is ready to accept every genuine demand of the farmers as he appealed to the farmers to lift the rail blockade which was causing huge harassment to general public, besides causing a whopping economic loss to the nation.
He said the state government has already taken several steps for safeguarding the interests of farmers and it would leave no stone unturned to bail the distressed farmers out of severe crisis.
"Being a farmer myself I am well versed with your problems and difficulties. So I urge you to shun the path of agitation and initiate a process of dialogue for amicable solution of this grave problem," Badal appealed to the farmers.

He said right from subsidies to timely dispensation of compensation, whenever required, the state government has always extended a helping hand to the farmers.
"Apart from taking these welfare measures for farming community, we were fully conscious that agriculture was no longer a profitable venture and thus the state government had introduced agriculture diversification programme due to which the farmers were getting handsome returns through allied farming activities like dairy, fishery, goatery and piggery," the Chief Minister said.