Sukhbir Badal holds protest against Punjab govt to cut VAT on petrol, diesel; no social distancing maintained

Tribune News Service
Zirakpur, July 7

SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal led party’s statewide agitation against Captain Amarinder Singh government demanding a cut in Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel to bring down the sky-rocketing prices.

Addressing his party workers here, Badal launched the attack by targeting the Congress government for failing to distribute the ration provided by the Centre government to the needy people during this crisis.

“The Congress leaders in the district and village sarpanches sold the ration meant for the poor people in shops. How is it that poor people got the ration in Haryana, HP and Delhi,” he asked.

The former deputy chief minister criticised the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government for claiming that the government coffers are empty.

“The Congress government is mired in a scam of Rs 5,600 crore by pocketing Centre government’s money for the relief work. Their leaders have overnight opened liquor distilleries and are selling spurious liquor. The sand mafia is the one emptying the government coffers. On the other hand, the common man has been burdened by hikes in power rates,” he said.

Badal asked the Centre and the state government to reduce Rs 10 each on VAT so that the prices of petrol and diesel are normalised.

Ironically, the Centre government increased the price of diesel by 25 paise per litre after seven days on Tuesday.

The price of petrol, however, remained unchanged.

Badal reminded the Captain government that the price of petrol and diesel is the highest in Punjab among all the neighbouring spot.

“I have written a letter to the Prime Minister to bring down the prices of petrol and diesel. Let the state government do it first, then we can demand it from the Centre government,” Badal said.

Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Badal said Captain Amarinder Singh is in a self-imposed lockdown, “he is not even meeting his own MLAs,” he said.

On the private schools asking for a fee from the parents in the state, Badal said: “They should not take fee from the people as they are already going through a financial crisis.”

No social distancing:

During the protest, the party workers and other people forgot to maintain social distancing, but the SAD leader said: “I had specifically asked the party workers to maintain social distancing. That is why I sat at a distance from the workers during the protest.”