Ludhiana: BJP Ludhiana district president Rajnesh Dhiman Tuesday said the farmers’ protests witnessed across Punjab had “exposed the hollowness” of chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s claims of a “power-surplus Punjab”.Claiming that farmers staged dharnas, grid gheraos and chakka jams in several parts of the state over prolonged power cuts during the peak paddy transplantation season, Dhiman said the protests highlighted the gap between the AAP govt’s claims and the ground reality.“Punjab has around 13.94 lakh agricultural tubewells, which are the backbone of the state’s farming sector. During the paddy season, power demand reaches 14,000-16,000 MW, but farmers are getting only 3-4 hours of erratic supply instead of the promised eight hours,” he alleged.Dhiman claimed that inadequate power supply was forcing farmers to run diesel generators for irrigation, adding to their financial burden. “The additional cost of diesel for irrigating paddy is breaking the farmer’s back. An already debt-ridden annadata is paying the price for the government’s failure,” he said.Alleging that the govt was focused more on advertisements and social media campaigns than ground-level governance, Dhiman said, “There is no electricity, no management and no accountability on the ground.”He urged the chief minister to visit villages and interact with farmers instead of “making speeches from air-conditioned halls”, and explain the reasons behind the power crisis. Dhiman alleged that farmers would hold the government accountable for its promises and performance at the appropriate time.
