Mafia rules the roost in state: Khaira

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 25

While terming the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as semi-finals of the 2022 Assembly elections, Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) convenor Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday urged the people to reject the ‘capitalists’ Congress and SAD-BJP as they had “cheated” the common man by making false promises.

He was addressing a rally organised in the city before PDA candidate Daswinder Kaur (CPI leader) filed nomination papers from the Amritsar Lok Sabh seat.

Accompanied by Khaira, CPI leaders Bant Brar, Hardev Arshi and Revolutionary Marxist party of India’s (RMPI) Mangat Ram Pasla, along with Daswinder Kaur, marched towards the deputy commissioner’s office for filing nomination papers. Nirmal Dhaliwal, Amarjit Singh Asal and BSP leader Manjit Singh Athwal were also present.

Khaira said that during the two-year regime of Capt Amarinder Singh-led state government, around 900 farmers had committed suicide due to mounting debt. “Just like the SAD-BJP’s 10-year rule in Punjab, the sand, land, cable, liquor and transport mafia continue to rule the roost. Just faces in the government have changed. The anti-people and anti-farmer policies of the traditional parties have left the people of the state in misery,” he said.

According to Khaira, on one hand the Congress government has discontinued various pension schemes benefiting people, including widows and retired personnel, it has been doling out lakhs of rupees as pension to former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on the other. “The education and public health are at the bottom of the priority list of the the state as well as the Centre, who are working only to benefit the capitalists. There is no employment opportunity for the youth. They were going abroad in search of greener pastures while those who can’t afford have been pushed into the deadly trap of drug abuse,” he said.

He exhorted the activists of six political parties, which have formed an alliance (PDA), to work round the clock for the win of Daswinder Kaur thereby brining a change in the current political scenario. The alliance comprises Punjab Ekta Party, CPI, CPM, RMPI, Lok Insaf Party and BSP

Daswinder Kaur (55) is a graduate. Previously, she contest the bypolls from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat after Capt Amarinder Singh resigned to contest the Assembly polls. She has Rs 10,000 in her bank account and another Rs 66,000 of the party fund. Besides, she has gold jewellery worth Rs 1.05 lakh, a house worth Rs 2.50 lakh and a scooter.