Chandigarh, Aug 10: CPI today demanded that a special session of the Punjab Assembly should be summoned to discuss the drought situation in the state.
Besides summoning a two-day special session of the state assembly, the government should convene an all party meeting to discuss the short and long term measures to deal with the situation and the central ministers from the state should pressurise the Centre to release more relief to the state, CPI State Secretary Joginder Dayal said.
"An all party delegation should meet the central leadership including the prime minister, deputy prime minister and the agriculture minister to apprise them about the ground realities about drought situation," he told reporters.
Dayal said all political parties in the state were ready to cooperate with the state government on this crucial issue "when interests of thousands and thousands of farmers and other people, whose livelihood is dependant on agriculture, are at stake".
The government should not go only by the reports prepared by bureaucrats, he said. "The ruling party should treat the present situation purely as a natural calamity rather than a political one. Central ministers from punjab including Vinod Khanna and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa should make the Centre understand about the gravity of the situation."
He said the CPI today called an all party meeting to discuss the drought situation, which was attended by all major political parties sans Congress.

Bureau Report