Congress holds protest against inflation, distributes free onions

Tuesday, 01/09/2015

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AMRITSAR: Congress activists on Monday held a protest at the Hall Gate hare against rising inflation and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Congress and Youth Congress activists raising slogans against the central government during a protest over the soaring onion prices at Hall Gate in Amritsar on Monday.

Led by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) secretary Dinesh Bassi, party leaders and workers first took out a procession from the Amritsar urban unit office of the party to the Hall Gate, raising slogans against Modi and his government.

Other than Modi, they also burnt effigies of finance minister Arun Jaitley, BJP chief Amit Shah and local BJP MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu.

While addressing the protesters, Bassi ridiculed the ‘Achhe din’ (good days) rhetoric of Modi, saying, “These are the good days of our Prime Minister when onions are selling at `60 per kg in the retail market. The rates of all vegetables, pulses and other kitchen items have shot through the roof and beyond the reach of even the lower middle class families.”

Youth Congress president of the Amritsar parliamentary constituency Dilraj Sarkaria also addressed the protest rally. Later the Congress leaders distributed onions free of cost to passers-by.

PROTEST AGAINST CANCELLATION OF PENSION IN BATALA
Congress workers along with pensioners, including elderly, widowed and handicapped, on Monday held a massive dharna in front of the sub-divisional magistrate’s office, demanding immediate reinstatement of all pensions.

Led by local Congress MLA Ashwani Sekhri, the protesters alleged that the cash-strapped Punjab government “omitted” names of hundreds of genuine pensioners from the list, calling them “bogus”.

“In the Batala assembly constituency, the pension of more than 500 elderly people, who do not have any other source of income, have been stopped by the social security department, citing various reasons such as death or ineligibility,” claimed Sekhri.

Sekhri said in their elections manifesto, the ruling SAD-BJP government had promised to increase the pension amount from `250 to `500, but in spite of increasing the amount, the “government stopped the payment of pensions” to many needy people.

Making a mockery of the verification made by the social security department, Sekhri presented one Milkhi Ram, a resident of Gandi Camp locality, in front of the media, claiming that the department had stopped the payment of his pension last year as he was mentioned dead in their records.

“When Milkhi Ram went to the social security department office in Gurdaspur to claim that he is alive, the department officials asked him to give a substantial proof that he is Milkhi Ram,” he added.

Demanding immediate payment of pensions to the beneficiaries, Sekhri said they would intensify their protest and give a dharna in front of the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner’s office, if the government failed to act within 15 days.