Former Punjab minister and senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday demanded clearance of dues of sugarcane growers by the state government as well as private sugar mills. He also demanded an increase in the rate of sugarcane in Punjab on the lines of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Majithia, who was recently released from the Patiala jail after he was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High court in a drugs case, said it was brought to his notice that farmers had been protesting here and demanding their cane dues of Rs 72 crore pending towards a local sugar mill here. He said that farmers must get their rights. Earlier, Majithia was given a resounding welcome by Akali workers at the Bhullarai underpass of Mehli-Mehtan Phagwara bypass.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader was on his way to the Golden Temple in Amritsar where he will offer prayers. Speaking to reporters, Majithia took a dig at former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, saying he created "history" by losing both the seats -- Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur-- he had contested during the February state assembly polls.
It is for the first time that a sitting chief minister lost both the seats, he said. Accusing Channi of following vindictive politics and framing him in a cooked-up drug case, Majithia asked the former chief minister as to what had he got from this "politics of hatred and vendetta". "Channi Sahib has fled to the US and not returned yet," said Majithia.
Without naming former MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, Majithia said the other person who worked against him day in and day out was his neighbour in the Patiala jail. "I pray for him also as when a political leader goes to jail, his family suffers a lot," he said. On his way, Majithia also visited the Bhagat Singh memorial at Khatkar Kalan in Nawanshahr. He was welcomed by the party workers on his way to Amritsar. "Tomorrow I will pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar," he said.
He attacked the AAP government, accusing it of playing fraud with people and said its defeat in the Sangrur bypoll within three months of its coming to power had "exposed its real face". To a question on his party MLA from Dakha, Majithia said legislator Manpreet Singh Ayali was like his brother. "We are a family and will remain a family," he said. Ayali had sought the implementation of the recommendations of the Iqbal Singh Jhundan panel formed to analyse the reasons for the party's humiliating defeat in the Punjab assembly polls. The SAD won just three seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly.
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