'Divert Rs 1,400cr for wheat bonus'

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Thursday asked the Centre to either hike Minimum Support Price of wheat or divert Rs 1,400 crore from the Rs 3,450 crore "available with the Punjab treasury" in order to pay a bonus of Rs 50 per quintal to farmers.

"According to figures repeatedly dished out by Finance Minister Surinder Singla and claims made by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the state government has around Rs 3,400 crore for various development and welfare activities to be undertaken in the current financial year," SAD general secretary Sukhbir Singh Badal said in a statement here.

He said most of this money was being employed in development projects, "which never went beyond the clearance stage".

"Even after disbursing the wheat bonus, Rs 2,000 crore would still be left for development projects," he said.

The Akali leader criticised Amarinder Singh for citing financial stringency as ground to reject the farmers' demands for bonus.

Amarinder Singh had yesterday said that the amount of bonus to farmers would work out to Rs 1,400 crore at the rate of Rs 50 per quintal and added that the government did not have such huge money to pay as bonus.