CHANDIGARH: A day after he resigned as Punjab chief minister, Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday expressed sorrow at having to cancel the scheduled disbursement of job appointment letters to families of 150 farmers who had lost their lives in the ongoing agitation against contentious farm laws.
Amarinder said with the new CM-designate already announced, he would unfortunately not be able to personally hand over job letters to the next-of-kin of the deceased protesters even though his council of ministers had already accorded approval to the proposal. He hoped the new chief minister would carry out the task at the earliest to provide relief to the affected families.
He also urged CM-designate Charanjit Singh Channi to ensure that the state government continued to stand with the beleaguered farmers of Punjab, “who have sacrificed their lives in our collective fight for justice”.
The outgoing chief minister made it clear that he would continue to support the farmers in their battle for survival and justice. “Every Punjabi, in fact every Indian, is morally bound to stand with the farmers in their hour of despair,” he said.
Amarinder, whose government had also released over Rs 14.85 crore in compensation to the next-of-kin of the 298 deceased farmers, said he would not allow the sacrifices of the country's ‘annadaatas’ to go to waste. It was the responsibility of every government and political dispensation, be it in Punjab or any other state, as well as the Centre, to ensure that the farmers got their due, he said, adding that the cases of 51 more families were under process.
