Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) were “a bunch of hypocrites” whose double standards on the farm laws had exposed their lack of commitment to the farmers.
“AAP and SAD MLAs never say what they mean, and vice versa,” said the CM in an informal interaction with journalists after the launch of the second phase of the Punjab Smart Connect Scheme in Mohali.
The Chief Minister pointed out that while the SAD was party to the introduction of the farm ordinances in the first place, the AAP government in Delhi had been quick to implement one of the farm laws.
Hitting out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Capt. Amarinder said the AAP leader had given approval to the black farm laws by notifying one of them in the national capital last month and was now indulging in petty politics over the matter by tearing copies of the Central laws.
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“This shows Kejriwal and AAP have a different face for the people, with totally contrarian intentions hidden inside,” Captain Singh said, slamming the party over its anti-farmer double-faced actions.
Separately, the CM virtually inaugurated a paddy straw based briquette plant of 100 tonnes per day capacity in Patiala.
Calling it an overdue initiative, the Chief Minister said the new technology will not only help check environmental pollution through gainful utilisation of paddy straw in the State but will also enable farmers, especially small farmers, earn extra income from the sale of paddy stubble.
Expressing confidence that more such plants would come up in the future to ease Punjab’s stubble burning problem, he said the low calorific value of 3,500 for briquettes (as compared with 7,000 for coal) is amply balanced out economically since coal costs ₹10,000 per tonne as against ₹4,500 per tonne for briquette. Further, with oil becoming expensive, this is also a more viable source of energy, he added.
The plant has been set up at village Kulburchan in Patiala district, at a capital cost of ₹5.5 crore, by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST) in collaboration with private partner M/s. Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd, with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India, under the Climate Change Action Programme.
