Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh begins dharna in Delhi amid Centre's rebuke

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday launched a sit-in protest in Delhi accusing the Modi government of meting out step-motherly treatment to the frontier state by refusing restart railway services suspended due to the farmers’ agitation over agri-reforms.

The suspension of Railway services has pushed the state on the brink of a blackout as power plants have run out of coal and forced to shut down and the supply of fertilisers too has taken a hit in the middle of the rabi season.

The Modi government rejected Singh’s allegations and asked the Punjab government to talk to the farmers and end the “political agitation” against the farm sector reforms.

Prakash Javadekar accused the Chief Minister of indulging in misleading propaganda over the farm sector reforms.

“The common farmers have come to the market to sell paddy and benefited from the increased minimum support price. There have been higher procurement of paddy this year. Farmers have expressed their belief in the new system,” the Information and Broadcasting Minister told reporters in Delhi.

Earlier, Singh launched the relay sit-in protest by a visit to Rajghat with Congress MPs and MLAs in tow. Singh then drove down to Jantar Mantar where Congress MLAs and MPs from Punjab had gathered for the protest.

Protesting MLAs accused the central government of trying to “choke Punjab” with the suspension of goods trains, where all essential goods are now in short supply, including coal for power plants and fertilizer for Rabi crops.

Amarinder said that he had sought a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind to discuss the food security issues in Punjab and not the three farm sector laws passed by the Punjab assembly, which are pending approval from the state Governor.

“The Governor has no role to play in this, he should have sent the Bills to the President by now, he is a mere post-box in such matters, so why has he not forwarded the Bills till now,” he asked.

Punjab had not been paid GST dues since March and its constitutional guarantee of Rs 10 crore was also pending, he said, adding that Disaster Relief Fund had also been stopped by the Centre.

“We don’t have money, our coal stocks are over, how can we survive in this situation,” Singh asked.