A delegation of Punjab Sikh farmers of Gujarat led by Balwant Singh Ramoowalia in-charge of the SAD (Delhi) state meting the deputy chief minister Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal at New Delhi on Saturday.
New Delhi/ Chandigarh, August 3, 2013: In a clear firm and pro-Punjabi decision, Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today made the cause of Gujarat farmers facing displacement from their lands his own by announcing that he would personally lead a delegation of Punjab MPs to Chief Minister Narendra Modi to plead their case. In another landmark decision he also announced that the state government would bear the full cost of their legal battle to retain their lands in the Supreme Court.
The Deputy Chief Minister, who met a delegation of farmers from the Kutch region of Gujarat who called on him at his residence in Delhi, assured them that the SAD was convinced about the justness of their cause and would do its utmost to ensure relief to them both on the political and legal front
To ensure quick relief to the farmers, who are paying lakhs of rupees as legal fee for every hearing in the apex court, the Deputy CM directed the State Advocate General to hire the best and most senior lawyers to represent them in the Supreme Court. He also appointed party senior vice president Balwant Singh Ramoowalia to coordinate the SAD’s efforts to win relief for the farmers on the occasion.
Thousands of Punjabi farmers of the Kutch area are fighting a legal battle in the apex court to escape eviction from their lands at the hands of the Gujarat government which has frozen their land holdings by invoking various tenancy and agriculture land acts. Earlier the farmers had won relief against eviction from the Gujarat high court but the Gujarat government chose to appeal against the high court order in the apex court.
Media Adviser to the Deputy chief minister – Jangveer Singh while giving details of the meeting, disclosed that the delegation led by Surinder Singh Bhullar, Satpal Giri, Rajpal Sandhu Pirthi Singh, Atma Ram and others laid bare the conspiracy of the Punjab Congress leaders to use the plight of the Gujarat farmers to hit out at the SAD-BJP regime even though they had done nothing for them. Bhullar disclosed at the meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister that forget helping them in their case in the apex court, the Punjab Congress had not even extended any humanitarian help to them.
Jangveer Singh disclosed that the Deputy CM consoled the delegation members and assured them that he understood their plight and that their sacrifices in transforming the Kutch landscape from desert fields to verdant, fertile and highly productive land would not be allowed to go waste. Sukhbir Badal assured the delegation that he believed in firm affirmative action once he was satisfied about the justness of a cause in direct contrast to “the paper tigers of the Punjab Congress who were competing against each other to get their names printed in newspapers even though they had never met any of the most affected farmers of the Kutch region in Gujarat”.
The delegation members on their part assured Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal that they did not subscribe to the statements being made by Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa on their behalf. Expressing faith in the Deputy CM’s capability to resolve the trickiest of problems due to his steely will power, Surinder Bhullar said “now our minds are at rest as we know a solution is in sight”.
Meanwhile, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who brought the plight of the Gujarat farmers to the notice of the Deputy CM, thanked him for rising to the occasion and taking a firm stand that Punjabis who had given their life for the country and the progress of various States should be allowed to breathe freely in those States. “This is the sign of a true statesman”, he added.