Bike protest rally against scrapping of GOG scheme

NURPUR, OCTOBER 14

The ex-servicemen led by Col RK Salaria, secretary United Front, Ex-servicemen Welfare Society, Punjab, took out a bike protest rally from Pathankot to Nurpur on Friday against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for scrapping Guardian of Governance (GOG) scheme launched by the previous Amarinder Singh government despite promising to continue it before Punjab’s Assembly elections.

Col Salaria, while talking to the media persons, said a protest demonstration was held against the AAP government in Punjab. The objective of the rally here was to sensitize the ex-servicemen of the area not to believe in hollow promises of the AAP in the upcoming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.

He said the previous Punjab government had engaged as many as 4,300 ex-servicemen under the GOG scheme to monitor 26 different government departments at grass root level in gram panchayats. “Under this scheme these the volunteer was getting honorarium of Rs 11,000 per month,” he said.

Salaria lamented that the AAP government in Punjab had suddenly scrapped the GOG scheme by issuing a notification on September 9 and removed all ex-servicemen from their surveillance duties.

He alleged that the Punjab government had betrayed thousands of ex-servicemen in the state and the Welfare Society was appealing to the ex-servicemen in Himachal Pradesh not to fall prey to the hollow announcement of the AAP on the occasion of assembly elections being conducted on November 12 in the state.