SAD protests hike in petrol, diesel prices in Ludhiana

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 7

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today staged a protest against hike in petrol, diesel prices and cancellation of blue cards. The protest was organised on the call of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Later, party leaders submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Being the major opposition party in the state, the SAD will continue to raise issues of public interest and force the state government to cut taxes on fuel. — Ranjit Singh, District President, SAD

Senior party leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said the Congress government in the state had imposed high taxes on petrol and diesel, which had led to spurt in the fuel prices.

Further, the Congress government claimed to have distributed ration among poor and needy during the lockdown but in reality, it had cancelled blue cards of thousands of persons belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category.

District president Ranjit Singh Dhillon said being the major opposition party in the state, the SAD would continue to raise issues of public interest and force the government to cut taxes on fuel.

Youth Akali Dal district president Gurdeep Singh Gosha said the party would continue its agitation against the government till public-related issues were addressed and genuine demands of people were accepted. He said rather than providing relief to people severely hit by unemployment and job losses during the pandemic, the government had inflicted a deadly blow on the common man who had to pay more for fuel, electricity while a whole lot of poor people were denied free/subsidised ration.

Kuldeep Singh Khalsa, Surinder Kaur Dyal, Harbhajan Singh Dang, Satish Malhotra, Vipan Sood Kaka, Happy Saini, Gagan Daba, Madan Lal Bagga, Parupkar Singh Ghuman, Dalvir Singh Dhaliwal, Tarsem Singh Bhinder, Baljit Singh Chatwal, Surinder Singh Chauhan, Gurmeet Singh Kular, Bhupinder Singh Bhinda, Sarabjit Singh Laddi, Gurmel Singh, Vijay Danav, Mandeep Kaur Sandhu and Gagandeep Singh Giaspura were among those others present.