Left parties march against ‘damage to property’ bill

The Punjab units of four communist parties on Thursday held a protest march against the Parkash Singh Badal government here on Thursday to highlight their 15-point demand charter for the state employees.

The Punjab units of four communist parties on Thursday held a protest march against the Parkash Singh Badal government here on Thursday to highlight their 15-point demand charter for the state employees.

Hardev Arshi of the CPI, Charan Singh Virdi of`CPI (M), Mangat Ram Pasla of CPM (Punjab) and Gurmeet Singh Bakhtpur of the CPI (M-L), Liberation, addressed hundreds of activists after they were stopped on way to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha where the state assembly session was on.

Later, they presented a memorandum of demands to the Vidhan Sabha speaker. They want the Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Bill, 2014, scrapped; `3,000 per month as widow and old-age pension; `15,000 as minimum wage to industrial workers, 100-marla plots to rural homeless people; round-the-year regular work under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) with `500 daily wage, and filling of vacancies in the government departments at the earliest.