SAD to hold statewide protests against Punjab govt on April 5

The Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday said it will hold protests against the Congress-led Punjab government across the state on April 5 over rising power tariffs, higher taxes on fuel and law and order situation.

The decision was taken by the party in a meeting of its core committee, the highest decision taking body of the SAD.

Party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal presided over the meeting.

“The protests will focus on the back-breaking hike in power tariffs from Rs 5 to Rs 10 per unit, unbearable state taxes accounting for the bulk of the hike in the prices of diesel and petrol and the denial of post-matric scholarship to SC students,” said a party statement.

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The protests will also focus on the “total breakdown” of the law and order machinery in the state, it said.

Badal's principal advisor Harcharan Bains said the party condemned the alleged attack on farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and sought a judicial probe into it.

Some people on Friday had thrown stones at a cavalcade of Tikait, damaging his car's rear windshield when he was going to address a rally in Rajasthan's Alwar district.

Bains said the party’s core committee slammed the Centre for its missive to the Punjab government over the use of bonded labour in its border villages.

A resolution describing it as "an attempt to defame state farmers" was also passed.

The party also condemned Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for maintaining a “conspiratorial silence over the Home Ministry's malicious communication”.

A resolution was also passed, accusing the chief minister of “abdicating his constitutional obligations for the maintenance of peace, communal harmony and law and order”.

The SAD core committee also delegated full powers and authority to the party president to take all decisions with regard to the forthcoming elections of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.