CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday lashed out at the Congress-led Punjab government for "miserably failing" to compensate farmers of the state's cotton belt who faced "huge losses" due to pink bollworm attack.
"The non-committal attitude of the government had resulted in suicide by five farmers in the last four days in Bathinda alone," the SAD claimed in a statement here.
SAD Kisan Wing president Sikander Singh Maluka alleged that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his deputy Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa resorted to theatrics during their tour of the state's cotton belt to assess the crop damage due to the pink bollworm attack.
He said neither the government conducted a 'girdawari' (revenue survey) to assess the losses, nor it provided immediate relief to the farmers who have suffered huge losses due to the destruction of their crops.
A few days back, Channi and Randhawa had gone to Bathinda to assess the damage to the cotton crop due to the pest attack.
Maluka claimed that cotton crop spread over thousands of acres has been destroyed due to the pink bollworm attack.
The distressed farmers are committing suicide but the Congress government is busy with internal bickering and has no time to solve their problems, he said.
Spraying hundreds of litres of pesticides has also not helped the farmers, he said.