CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, PUNJAB.

CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, PUNJAB.

BADAL ASKS PM TO INTERVENE IN THE TURBAN ISSUE


Chandigarh February 28 – The Punjab Chief Minister today asked Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to intervene “personally, effectively and immediately” to get the ban on the Sikhs’ wearing turban in France revoked.
Mr. Badal asked the Prime Minister to take up the issue at the highest level with the French authorities as the matter “is agitating the minds of the Sikhs and all right thinking people all over the world.
“Considering the highly sensitive nature of the issue, the matter was agitating the minds of the Sikhs all over the world . In view of the sensitive nature of the matter, urgent and immediate action was required,” said the Chief Minister.
Mr. Badal said that it was unfortunate that the Sikhs had been facing various forms of discrimination in several countries and the ban on turban in France was only symptomatic of this. He said that the Centre should show greater concern over these issues.
Regretting that religious intolerance was being allowed to become the norm in international affairs, Mr. Badal said that the ban on wearing one’s religious symbols “militates against the internationally accepted norms of human rights and preservation of religious and cultural freedom. It is amazing that such a retrograde step has been taken in a country like France which prides itself on its liberal traditions on freedom of conscience.”
The Chief Minister said that Dr. Singh, as a Sikh himself, would be well aware that turban “is one of the inalienable symbols of the Sikh religion.” As such, any ban on this amounted to crushing the right to freedom of religion and conscience.
,
No:CMO-09/71








CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, PUNJAB.

GIVE DIESEL TO FARMERS AT 25% BELOW MARKET PRICE, BADAL TO PM


Chandigarh February 28 – The Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Union Government to announce a one time waiver of all agriculture loans and implement the recommendations of internationally acclaimed farm scientist, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan on fixing Minimum Supoort Price of farm products 50% above the basic costs of production.
The Chief Minister demanded that diesel being one the critical agricultural inputs, it should be made available to the farmers at 25% below the prevailing market price.
He also called for a comprehensive national policy on agriculture and said that in formulating this the views of the predominantly agricultural states should be taken and given due weightage.
In a letter to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Badal called for “major long term initiatives on the part of Government of India are called for in order to provide a lasting solution to the farm crisis.”
Releasing the contents of the letter, Chief Minister’s Media Advisor Mr. Hardcharan Bains disclosed that Mr. Badal would raise these and several other farm related issues with Dr. Singh at a personal meeting as soon as the Prime Minister resumed duties.
Mr. Badal raised the issue of farm indebtedness and said, “The issue has
assumed the proportions of a grave human tragedy. Although the problem is countrywide, its severity in Punjab is the intensest. Because of the serious crisis that agriculture faces, farmers are driven to the extreme measure of suicides. The rise in the incidence of such suicides by the farmers and farm labourers is alarming and calls for a national response.”
Suggesting effective initiatives to fight the crisis, the Chief Minister said that as first step all agricultural loans should be waived as a one time measure.

Secondly, the system of fixation of Minimum Support Price for agriculture produce must be rationalized in the light of the recommendations made by the, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan. According to these recommendations, farmers should be given the basic cost of production incurred by them, plus 50% as profit. The Chief Minister regretted that the whole system of arriving at cost-price equation was flawed and out of synch with the practices followed in other professions like business, trade and industry. For example, said Mr. Badal, the value of land, which is “the basic asset for farm operations, is not taken into account while arriving at the final figure of cost incurred by the farmer. Same is the case with human resource as labour. These should be factored into the final analysis for calculating economic in-puts. For this purpose, he said, farm labour should be deemed as a semi-skilled human resource.
Mr. Badal also suggested the setting up of a team of agro-economic experts to constantly update national agriculture data to enable the government to take decisions in tune with the prevailing realities.
No: CMO-09/72