Punjab CM Mann Meets Amit Shah, Discusses Border Security & Bhakra Beas Management Board Issue

“Several other matters, including the Basmati crop and Punjab quota issue in Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), were also discussed,” he added.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann (File Photo)

New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who on Thursday called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital, said that he discussed several matters, including issues of national security and technology infrastructure to enhance border management services. Mann after the meeting said the Central government will provide 10 more companies of the security forces to Punjab, ANI reported. The Punjab Chief Minister said that he also requested for anti-drone technology.

“He (Union Home Minister Amit Shah) said that we will work together with regard to national security,” Mann said.

“Several other matters, including the Basmati crop and Punjab quota issue in Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), were also discussed,” he added.

Mann’s meeting with the Union Home Minister comes a day after the farmers of Punjab ended their protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government accepted several of their demands.

This came after the representatives of farmer bodies held a marathon meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister in Chandigarh, PTI reported.

Conceding the farmers’ demands, Mann announced a fresh schedule for staggered sowing of paddy on June 14 and June 17, thus restricting the total number of zones to just two instead of four.

Mann told the farmer leaders that his government has already issued a notification to procure the entire moong (green gram) crop at a minimum support price of Rs 7,275 per quintal.

Bharti Kisan Union (Sidhupur) state president Jagjit Singh Dallewal later announced the decision to lift the protest.

Earlier on Tuesday, scores of farmers began a protest near the Chandigarh-Mohali border after they were stopped from heading to the Punjab capital to press their various demands, including a bonus on wheat and beginning paddy sowing from June 10.

The government had asked the farmers not to go for paddy transplantation till June 18.

The Chief Minister had on Tuesday called the agitation by the farmers as unwarranted.

Mann said his doors are open for talks with the farmers but hollow slogans cannot break his resolve to check further depletion of groundwater.