Sukhbir Badal addresses the dharna of Shiromani Akali Dal in Moga. (Express photo: Gurmeet Singh)Ferozepur MP Sukhbir Singh Badal Friday led a protest against the hike in the power tariff and accused the Congress government in Punjab of oppressing the common man by trying to stop the ‘atta-dal’ scheme.
Badal, the SAD president, claimed that there were reports that ‘blue cards’, necessary to avail ‘atta-dal’ scheme, were being denied to Akali Dal supporters and that this was part of a Congress conspiracy to shut down the scheme.
He said his party will wage a war against the MGNREGA mafia, which was siphoning of central funds. He said a raid by a central team in Faridkot recently exposed the mafia being run by Congress leaders in collusion with corrupt officials.
Badal claimed that the Congress government has increased power tariff by almost 25 to 30 per cent in the last two-and-a-half years. Besides this, farmers and urban areas were facing hardship due to repeated power cuts. “We demand the inhuman increase in power rates be reviewed and reduced immediately and farmers are given uninterrupted power for the remaining part of the paddy season,” he said.
Raising the issue of political vendetta against Akali workers, he said the party has formed a committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder, which will take up all false cases registered against party workers.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, led by Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, protested against the SAD president in Moga and said that he had no moral right to protest now as he himself did nothing during his 10-year tenure as deputy CM.
Cheema said that Sukhbir is the “kingpin of power mafia” in the state. “Earlier the commission from private thermal plants went to Sukhbir and now it is going to the Congress. So with what moral right is he here to protest today?” asked Cheema. The LoP along with party MLA Meet Hayer leaders distributed pamphlets against Badals at main chowk of Moga.
