Sukhpal Singh Khaira MLA Bholath, Navtej Singh Cheema Sultanpur Lodhi, Jagjit Singh Bittu President Youth Congress Kapurthala, Amanpreet Singh Montu President Youth Congress Hoshiarpur, Pritpal Singh Block President Youth Congress Jalandhar, Mehtab Singh Khaira S/o S. Sukhpal Singh Khaira MLA Bholath, 4 women Congress workers and 218 Congress workers were arrested by the Jalandhar police at 11 AM today morning, while proceeding to Jalandhar bus stand to ‘Gherao’ buses belonging to Badal family.
Talking to media persons before being arrested at Kartarpur, Mr. Khaira said that the Badals had murdered democracy in Punjab today. Mr. Khaira said we had assembled for a peaceful protest to highlight the issue to hijack of transport trade by the Badals in Punjab. But the arrogant and autocratic Badals do not have the courage to face public criticism and have indulged in undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegitimate manner to arrest congress workers.
Mr. Khaira said that the Badals are causing Rs. 1500 crores losses to the public exchequer each year by giving under benefit to self and its transport companies. Mr. Khaira said whole the state owned public undertakings were suffering losses of over Rs. 463 crores as reported by Comptroller Auditor General(CAG), the buses belonging to Badals were profiting Rs. 30 lacs daily due to its 150 super integral coaches by cheating taxes and making Rs. 20,000 per bus daily in the state.
Mr. Khaira said it was surprising that the govt. in its transport policy adopted in September 2007 waived off Rs. 7 per km tax out of Rs. 7.50 per km in the luxury or integral coaches owned by the Badals, while in the ordinary bus category the tax rebate was only 25 paise per km reducing it from 2.50 per km to Rs. 2.25 per km.
To sum it up the entire transport trade has been taken over by the Badal family and all small bus operators have been pushed out of the trade. Mr. Khaira vowed to take up the hijack of transport trade in the Vidhan Sabha tomorrow.
