DW BUREAU / chandigarh Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday asked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to hold a special assembly session immediately to revoke the amended State Agriculture Produce Markets Committee (APMC) Act of 2017 saying the chief minister should not practice deceit with farmers by shedding crocodile tears at their fate while he is the author of the same legislation in Punjab and continues to stand by his own anti-farmer Act. In a statement here, the SAD President said the chief minister could not run with the hare and hunt with the hound and asked him to tell the farmers and 'khet mazdoor' of Punjab why he is refusing to rescind the State APMC Act, 2017 which he has implemented in his own State as chief minister. Sukhbir Singh Badal also asked the chief minister if he could show the moral courage to disassociate himself from the Congress manifesto of 2019 which called for removing the APMC Act all together. He also asked the chief minister to apologize to the farming community for encouraging corporatization of the farm sector by accepting the Montek Singh Ahluwalia committee report which calls for reducing procurement of foodgrain. He asked the chief minister to scrap the committee and reject its report which he termed as a death warrant for Punjab farmers. Badal said this was not the first time that the chief minister had backstabbed the people. "He has earlier also made false promises in the name of the holy Gutka Sahib and the Dasam Pitah. Even now he is trying to deceive farmers". Stating that the truth was before the people, Mr Badal said the chief minister was responsible for amending the State APMC Act in 2017 to allow creation of private yards, e-trading and direct marketing. The SAD president said the special assembly session should also discuss the Congress party's role in framing of the agricultural ordinances which became Bills recently. He said the chief minister was a member of the high powered committee which framed the ordinances and even sent finance minister Manpreet Badal to participate in a meeting of the committee in Mumbai. "Subsequently the Congress government even sent a note to the centre agreeing with many of the provisions of the ordinances. Farmers want to know why the chief minister kept this entire exercise secret and why he did not take any clearance from farmers before taking a decision which would destroy their future generations." Asking Capt Amarinder Singh to first burn copies of the party's 2019 election manifesto before trying to speak about the welfare of farmers, Badal said as far as the SAD was concerned it was a party of farmers. "Farmers are the life blood of our party. We are committed to ensure no injustice is done to them. We are launching a series of programmes in Punjab starting from September 25 to force the Central government to rescind the three Agricultural Bills." (editor@dailyworld.in)