Staging a protest dharna and march against the problems of drug abuse, heavy taxes, poor law and order in the state, Punjab Congress on Thursday sought an apology from the Chief Minister and action against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) members involved in crime-related activities.
led by party chief Partap Singh Bajwa, the Congress workers from Bathinda region flocked the home constituency of Badal family and held a day long dharna at Subhash Chowk, and then marched through streets to the administrative complex to hand over a memorandum to the Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Prashar addressed to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
“Punjab is named after five rivers but the Chief Minister’s family had changed the State’s nomenclature by adding sixth river of drugs,” said Bajwa while addressing the party workers sitting on dharna. He said: “Congress workers have gathered here to call the Chief Minister’s attention towards the plight of people of Punjab who are falling prey to anti-social activities of some senior leaders of SAD. The people have been facing serious threat from the drug menace and deteriorating law and order in the state. Not only this, the burden of heavy taxes on urban people has made their lives miserable.”
In the memorandum, Bajwa stated that it was ironical that Chief Minister had turned his back towards people’s sufferings and encouraging criminal activities by keeping quite. “But, the Congress party has great responsibility towards 2.77 crore population of Punjab in the light of the fact that it has the largest share of 40.11 per cent votes against 34.75 per cent share of SAD in 2012 Assembly,” he said.