Chandigarh, July 6 –   The Shiromani Akali Dal today hailed the decision of the  NDA government giving a steep hike on steep increase in minimum support prices (MSP) of foodgrains, pulses, oil seeds cotton etc to ensure a profit margin of more than fifty per cent on costs all agricultural inputs,  including labour.

 This would result in a direct benefit of nearly Rs 4000 crore to the Punjab farmers alone.

  A resolution passed a the Core Committee meeting said that the centre’s decision would amount to a fulfillment of the goals of the long and arduous struggle waged by “the  party under the stewardship of the  country’s iconic leader, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal.

   A meeting of the party’s Core Committee held here this afternoonalso thanked the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on behalf of the Punjab farmers and farm labourers for fulfilling his commitment to give  them a profit of   50% over and above their cost of production.

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 Giving details fo the Core Committee meeting, party spokesperson Harcharan Singh Bains told newspersons that  the issue of farming  crisis in the country in general and in Punjab in particular formed the crux of the proceedings today. While the  Core Committee thanked the Union Government for  the courageous initiative of  ordering an unprecedented hike in MSP of various crops,   a resolution passed at the meeting said the decision speaks volumes of the commitment of the NDA government to come to the aid of the farming community in its hour of dire need. “ The farmers and farm labourers who had earlier steered the country out of the scourge of famines and food imports,  are in the grip of an alarming crisis which has led to the shocking tragedy of farmers’ suicides. Over 500 farmers have lost their lives this year alone in Punjab. The announcement of substantial increase in MSP will go a long way in steering the beleaguered farmers out of this deep crisis.

  Mr Bains said  that the Core Committee felt that the implications of the decision on MSP would create the right environment for making agriculture a remunerative profession again.  This in turn would boost the morale of the peasantry and the farm labour as it would ensure them that the country has not forgotten how the farmers made the country economically self sufficient by turning it from a land of food shortages and a famines to a country of food surpluses. “Farmers and farm labour have been the back bone of India’s rise to the status of an economic super power  which the country enjoys today.  ” said the Resolution

 The party offered “ whole hearted constructive support to the government I fighting the drug menace. The meeting endorsed the stand of  the party president Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal   that the fight against drugs must be fought by rising above petty vested political interests or divisions

The Core Committee however regretted that the attitude of the ruling party and some other political outfits had served only in ruining the image  of the Punjab youth outside Punjab, making it extremely difficult for them to pursue their professional or academic careers outside the state.  “ The Congress had always cynically tried to take political advantage out of this sensitive problem, their leaders not stopping even at swearing falsely on oath of holy Gutka sahib.

  The Core Committee  criticized the attempts of the present government in Punjab    to  divert the attention of  the people of the state from its failures to tackle the drug problem. It lashed out against the Chief Minister Captain Amaridner Singh for backing out on his “ oath taken while holding the sacred Gutka Sahib in his hand, to finish off the drug problem in just four weeks,”

   SAD also warned that “ mothers, sisters and daughters”  who  are serving as employees in Punjab would not  be allowed to be disgraced by the government by subjecting them to forced dope tests. 

   The meeting described as “stuntmanship”  the PR antics being employed by the present  government on the drug issue. A resolution to this effectsaid that the number of suicides in the state had been rising at an alarming rate while the govt has failed miserably to act against big suppliers and drug dons. 
      “ The SAD-BJP government had  succeeded to a large extent  in its fight against the  drug menace. Had the opposition parties then offered us constructive cooperation to the government then, we would have  taken  defeated the problem even more decisively.  However, we will act in the larger interests of  the Punjabis and  we offer full constructive support to  to the government in fighting drug menace. 

 The party also  thanked Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Shri Raj Nath Singh for the decision of the  Union government to sanction Rs 2.16 crore to compensate 40 Sikhs  who had been illegally picked up from Sri Harmandar Sahib  after the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi had ordered  the brutal and blunderous army assault on the holiest shrine of the Sikhs in June 1984.  
  The Core Committee of the party met here this afternoon under the chairmanship of Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal and thanked the BJP president Shri Amit Shah also for the role played by him in persuading the Unon Government to come to the aid of the beleaguered peasantry.

   Mr Bains told newsmen that the Committee hailed  the centre’s decision to release the compensation amount . A resolution to this effect said that  the centre’s initiative would help in healing heal the wounds inflicted on the innocent Sikhs by the Congress led governments. The decision of the centre government is also an indictment of the   Congress government led by Mrs Indira Gandhi  for the crime committed against the Sikhs and the humanity at large  in 1984,”  said the Resolution.