To pressure the UPA government to fulfill their demands, the depot holders (owners of fair-price shops) in the state have decided to join the nation-wide call of depot holders on March and begin a march towards Parliament.
After the meeting of depot holders held on Tuesday, Gurjinder
Singh Sidhu, the state president of Punjab Depot Holders Union, told the media, "The UPA government is trying to close nearly 6.13 lakh fair-price shops in the country. This will lead to large-scale unemployment. The plan of transferring subsidy to the consumers on essential goods is also faulty and anti-poor."
"We have been working on same commission rates since independence and the states and UTs have failed to fulfill our demands, in spite of lots of promise before polls."
"We also demand the salary on the tunes of salesmen of cooperative societies to reduce our financial deficit," he further added.
"We have enough vote-strength in country to change regimes. If the UPA government fails to meet our genuine demands, we will launch a nation-wide-stir before the forthcoming parliamentary elections."