With the Army's surgical strikes on terrorist camps across the Line of Control adding a new dimension to the campaign for the Assembly elections in Punjab, the Congress' face for the polls, Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday visited border villages in the state and termed the massive evacuation of people from the areas “excessive”.
Khemkaran, a region close to the border, turned into Singh's campaign turf in the light of the Indian action across the LoC and its aftermath. He visited around five villages in the region along the border, meeting the farmers and asking them about their problems arising out of the evacuation of residents from border villages.
Singh was critical of the massive evacuation effort in Punjab along the border. “While the strike was a fitting response to the provocation, and has been lauded by the Congress president as well, the evacuation in Punjab is excessive,” he said.
“I visited more than five villages in Khemkaran today [Tuesday], stopping at multiple locations. Everywhere people are concerned about their crops that still stand green in the fields and their cattle that need feeding,” he said.
Attacking the Badals, he said the government did not have the means to procure the grains, hence the “mayhem” in the border villages. He said the farmers stood to incur huge losses if they resorted to ill-timed harvest.
“Akali politics at the cost of poor farmers angers me. I stand in solidarity with my brethren here,” Singh said.
