Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Monday said that 85 per cent of those who are protesting as part of the farmers’ agitation are from Punjab, while Haryana’s farmers are “happily working in their fields”. He also issued a “warning” to those who had chosen Haryana as the land for disrupting law and order and accused the Punjab government of instigating farmers.

Khattar made these remarks while addressing a press conference marking completion his government’s 2,500 days in Haryana.

Responding to media’s queries regarding the Karnal lathicharge incident, Khattar said, “Those agitating and taking law and order in their hands are not farmers, they are politically motivated people. Haryana farmers are happily working in their fields, those are Punjab farmers who are actually sitting at Tikri and Singhu borders”.

Responding to a question on Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s statement that he should apologise to farmers, Khattar said, “In what authority he (Amarinder Singh) is asking me to resign or apologise? Who is he to ask me to apologise or resign? Rather, he should resign for instigating farmers. About 85 per cent of those sitting on Delhi’s borders are from Punjab.”

Talking about the farmers’ ongoing protests in Haryana, Khattar blamed Punjab government backing the protestors and said, “I want to warn them that they have chosen a wrong place — Haryana”.

“Punjab government has a hand in this ongoing protest in Haryana. This is bitter truth, otherwise (farmer leader) Rajewal would not have been seen serving laddoos to Punjab CM. I am warning them (farmers) that they have wrongly chosen Haryana to carry on with their protest”.

Launching a scathing attack on Congress and Communist party leaders, Khattar said, “They mislead innocent farmers and provoke them to create chaos. Through such agitations, if these leaders think that they can achieve their vested interests, and then they are highly mistaken. A positive dialogue was held between these protestors and district administration wherein they had given written consent that they would only protest in a symbolic manner and will not violate law and order situation. However, it is really unfortunate to see that how at the behest of some politically motivated leaders, they had broken their promise.”

Further talking about farmers, Khattar said that “about Rs 11,000 crore has so far been disbursed as direct benefit in the bank accounts of nearly 50 lakh farmers in the last 2500 days”.

Khattar praises his govt’s performance

Talking about his government’s track record, Khattar said:“In these 2500 days, while initiating various Information and Technology reforms so as to ensure paperless, faceless and transparent governance, the present state government not only changed the course of development through corruptionless governance but also launched various public schemes and programmes that reached the last man first.”

“Tightening the noose around corruption and providing jobs only on merit basis can be termed as our two biggest achievements,” Khattar said.