Farmers' Protest: Sukhbir Badal Promises To Honour Families Of 'Martyrs' With Govt Job, Free Education

The Shiromani Akali Dal has formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for contesting the 2022 Assembly election in Punjab.

File Photo

Chandigarh: In a significant announcement, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has announced that if voted to power, the SAD-BSP alliance will "honour martyrs of Kisan Andolan".

The alliance has committed to providing several benefits for kin of those who died in the Farmers' protests. These include as 1 government job per family, free education to their children and grandchildren till post-graduation and health insurance cover.

On Friday, Sukhbir Singh Badal wrote on Twitter: "I assure Punjabis, immediately after forming government in 2022, SAD-BSP will honour martyrs of Kisan Andolan with one government job per family, free education to their children and grandchildren till post-graduation and health insurance cover to the entire family".

The Shiromani Akali Dal has formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for contesting the 2022 Assembly election in Punjab.

In a video posted on his Twitter handle, Sukhbir Badal said that for the past seven months, farmers have been camping at the Delhi borders, demanding repeal of the black farm laws brought by the Modi government at the Centre.

More than 550 farmers have laid down their lives during this agitation, he emphasised.

If the SAD-BSP alliance comes to power, its first decision will be to provide government jobs to a family member of each farmer who died during the agitation, Badal announced.

He also expressed hope to see farmers emerging victorious in their tussle with the Union government against the three contested agrarian legislations.

Farmers mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been camping at Delhi borders since November last year, demanding that the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government have failed to break the deadlock.

While farmers continue protests, the Union government has maintained that the laws are in their favour and has put forth the offer to resume talks to make desirable changes as it ruled out the possibility of complete repeal.