SAD holds statewide protests against ‘ration scam’, fuel price hike
MOHALI/JALANDHAR/AMRITSAR/LUDHIANA: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, 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 MLA N K Sharma, who thanked him for the development of Mohali during the SAD-BJP tenure.