Free power to farmers is investment, not subsidy: Akali Dal

SHIMLA - Free power to the farmers in Punjab is an investment, not a subsidy, Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal said here Friday.

“Free power to the farmers is an investment to agriculture, not a subsidy… The party stood by its commitments to the people during the elections,” Harcharan Bains, media adviser to the Punjab chief minister, told reporters after the day-long “Vichar Baithak” (brainstorming session) of the party that began Friday at the Peterhoff Hotel here.

Asked about Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s statement on the eve of the brainstorming session that he would demand withdrawal of subsidies doled out by the government, Bains said: “Nobody talked about the subsidies during the session… It did not figure during the session at all.”

“During the session, it was decided to concentrate more on governance, strengthening party’s base at grassroots level, involving more youth in party affairs,” he said.

On the allegations of state’s opposition Congress that the Akali Dal is spending crores of rupees on hosting the session and staying in a five-star hotel, Bains said: “We all will bear the expenditure. Everybody, even the chief minister would pay the bills from his pocket.”

In response to a question, he said that most decisions taken at Shimla had been discussed earlier with the state’s alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Whatever we will decide here, that will be finalised after taking the BJP into confidence,” he added.