Patronage to private transport mafia: Captain in the Badals’ footsteps: AAP
Chandigarh, July 2- Expressing solidarity with the striking Punjab Roadway Bus employees in the state for their long-pending demands, Senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Harpal Singh Cheema, has leveled serious charges against the Captain Amarinder Singh government of being insensitive to them.
In a statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh here on Tuesday, Cheema said the Captain Amarinder Singh government was in the footsteps of the Badals in terms of offering patronage to the private transport mafia in the state.
The AAP leader further added that during the 10-year old regime of the Badals, they had been promoting their own interests and those of their henchmen by plying fleets of buses on the choice routes, leading the govt-run transport suffer monumental losses and was on the verge of collapse. He said that, disenchanted by misdeeds of the Badals, people had voted for Captain government which, he said, had also reneged on the promises it made to the people of the state.
Cheema said that on the one hand Punjab Roadways (PUNBUS) and PRTC managements were not filling the vacant posts through regular recruitment route, the contractual employees were not even paid their salaries on time, adding that, ironically though, despite being out of power, the Badals were striking a deal with private bus companies and getting the operating rights from them to ply fleets after fleets of buses on the routes of their choice.
Cheema said that AAP would raise the contagious issue in the upcoming assembly session to demand regularisation of the services of contractual and outsourcing employees. He also accused the Captain government of being solely responsible for the inconvenience caused to the people due to the strike by the roadways employees