State Cong to protest against Pb govt over economic "failures"

Alleging government's failure on economic front, from farmers to traders, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa today said that the opposition party will stage protest against the state and the Centre on Sept. 29.
The Congress Kisan Cell would stage dharnas at the district headquarters and burn effigies of the central and state government on September 29 while the PPCC chief will lead a delegation of the industrialists, Beopar Mandal and PPCC on the same day to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the PPCC said in a statement.
Bajwa claimed the industrialists in the state were agitated over VAT and other issues but despite several discussions, the state government had failed to come to their rescue by resolving those problems.

On the one hand, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had been giving the impression that he was on a mission to woo industrialists to the state while on the other, the existing industry was on the verge of closure, he said.
"It seems he is exploring the avenues for his own business interests at the cost of state exchequer as all the years, his government had failed in all such endeavours as the basic problems here were too well known to the investors. For Sukhbir Badal, the priority is the expansion of his personal business empire", Bajwa alleged.
The so called progressive Punjab and agriculture summits held in the recent past by the Punjab government had "failed" to attract any tangible investment, he said.

Referring to the "deepening crisis" in the farm sector, he said the worst-hit at the moment were the cotton- growers, whose crops had suffered extensive damage due to untimely rains.

"Many of them had been ruins. Their problems had been further compounded that majority of them were already under huge debt and this burden would increase in the absence of adequate compensation," he said.
He claimed that already, more and more farmers in the Malwa belt of state were "committing suicides" and the state government had failed to provide any relief package despite the fact that Badal had been proclaiming his sympathies for the farmers all these years.

He also demanded that farmers sowing Basmati variety of rice should be assured adequate price as the prices in the market were falling this might land these farmers into crisis.