'Political colour' given to farmers' agitation, says Amarinder

Senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh today sought a probe into the negligence by Punjab government in taking action on the advancing warning about whitefly attack on cotton by the Central Integrated Pest Management Centre (CIPC).
The Congress Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha also condemned the attempts by the state government to give "political colour" to the farmers' agitation.
He said that instead of recognising the severity of the crisis, the Chief Minister and his Deputy Chief Minister were attributing "political motives" to the protesting farmers.
The former Chief Minister also said that the CIPC, Jalandhar had sent an advance report to the state government way back in July when the whitefly pest attack was in its formative stage and could have been tackled completely and effectively.

CIPC had warned about the attack and the damage it could cause, but nobody seemed to have taken note of the warning at that time, he claimed.
Singh also said that after the cotton growers, it will be the turn of paddy farmers as there are no proper procurement arrangements as he had been warning about it time and again.

He demanded that the responsibility must be fixed as why the report was ignored.
"Had the government taken action on the report, much of the cotton crop could have been saved," he said, while asserting that suspending and imprisoning one odd official will not serve any purpose as the final authority is that of the minister.

"Instead, they are all busy in defending their minister Tota Singh giving him clean chit much before the inquiry has been completed," he said in a statement here.
Capt Amarinder took a dig at the state government claims that Haryana and Rajasthan farmers had suffered more losses than Punjab farmers and still they were not protesting.
"Does this government want our farmers to suffer as enormously as those in the neighbouring states that only then it will wake up?" he asked.
Referring to the claims of the state government about having announced Rs 600 crore for providing compensation to the effected cotton growers Capt Amarinder asked, "Let us know the names and addresses of the farmers who have been compensated by this government with this amount."

He said that it was a mere joke as some farmers had been issued compensation cheques as low as Rs 140.