E-Paper
SAD holds statewide protests, Sukhbir demands CBI probe into ration embezzlement
The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday held statewide protests against the hike in fuel prices, alleged scam in ration meant for the poor, illegal mining
The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday held statewide protests against the hike in fuel prices, alleged scam in ration meant for the poor, illegal mining and increase in power tariff in Punjab.
Leading a protest at Zirakpur in Mohali district, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal demanded that the Punjab government slash fuel prices by ₹10 a litre. “Once the Punjab government reduces fuel prices by ₹10 per litre, we will ask the Centre to do the same,” said Badal, while demanding a CBI probe into the “ration embezzlement”.
He said he had already written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce central excise on petrol and diesel. He also demanded the government ensure that no student of any private school in the state was victimised solely because his parents were not able to afford the fee due to reduced income during Covid-19 pandemic. He said Punjab should compensate the private schools by submitting six months school fee of students in advance to them.
Leading a dharna here, Badal said a large number of Punjabis came out in thousands over the SAD’s ‘Punjab Bachao’ call and displayed their seething anger against the Congress government and chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh for leaving them in the lurch at the time of a pandemic. “People today hold the Congress government responsible for the hike fuel prices as well as increase of power tariff and other taxes because Congressmen have looted the state treasury through a series of scams be it the ₹5,600-crore liquor scam, the ₹4,000-crore seed scam or illegal mining or even the latest insurance scam,” he said.
Badal thanked the people for coming out to show solidarity with the SAD and force the Congress government and the chief minister who is “busy making gimmickry videos while locked up in his farmhouse. “Today every village and town in the state has passed a vote of no-confidence against chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the days of Congress government are numbered,” he said in Zirakpur in the presence of Derabassi legislator N K Sharma, who thanked him for the development of Mohali during the SAD-BJP tenure and disclosed how every work had come to a stop during the Congress rule.
Senior leader and MP Balwinder Singh Bhundur said the people of Punjab had been left to their own fate amid the pandemic even as Congress leaders were resorting to open loot by indulging in manufacturing and bottling illicit liquor besides cross-border liquor smuggling.
Senior party leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who was in Amritsar, said diesel is the costliest in Punjab as compared to neighbouring states. He demanded a central probe into the “embezzlement and wrongful distribution” of ration by the Congress government.
In Jalandhar, the SAD organised protests at various places against the alleged anti-people policies of the government. Similar protests were organised in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Kapurthala districts.
The SAD workers also staged a protest against the cancellation of blue cards and hike in fuel prices near the Mini Secretariat in Ludhiana. The workers formed a human chain to register their protest and raised slogans against the Congress government and submitted a memorandum to Ludhiana deputy commissioner.
Akali Dal leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said the Congress government has imposed various taxes on petrol and diesel and demanded that both the Centre and the Punjab government should reduce fuel prices.
“The government has cancelled blue cards of the people living below the poverty line and there is a massive bungling in the distribution of ration,” said Grewal. Party’s district president Ranjit Singh Dhillon said they will keep raising the issues of public concern and force the government to cut taxes on fuel.
