Chandigarh, October 8
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab said that now the traders, businessmen and industrialists in the state are also forced to come out on the streets to express their anger against the state and central government. Because on the one hand, corruption, mafia rule and deteriorating law and order have not allowed the necessary good environment for business in Punjab; while the anti-business and anti-trader policies and intentions of the BJP-led central government has left no stone unturned to ruin this class.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Friday, senior leader of the AAP and MLA Aman Arora said, “The governments that were in power not only ignored the businessmen, traders and industrialists of Punjab, rather, most of the loot was also done from them at the hands of corrupt government machinery and mafia.” He said that the first major loss to the industry of Punjab was due to the period of terror in the year 1980. Then, the second big blow to the industry of Punjab was given by the Vajpayee government of Akali Dal-BJP at the centre, while the Akali-BJP government was in power in Punjab at that time.
Arora said a special industrial package was given on tax exemption for the neighboring states of Punjab, while it had a bad effect on the industry of Punjab. He said the traders not only got additional facilities from the business point of view in the neighboring hill states of Punjab, but also got many other types of relief including favorable environment. “Due to this, it became difficult for the businessmen, industrialists and traders of Punjab to survive in the business competition in front of their neighbors and they were also forced to move their business to neighboring states,” he added.
He said Sukhbir Singh Badal, the current president of Shiromani Akali Dal, was the industries minister at the time of the coming and implementation of this decision in the neighboring hill states of Punjab in the Vajpayee government. The industry of Punjab has not been able to get back on track since then, he added. Aman Arora said that Punjab is one of the most expensive power supplying states; because the 20 percent tax charged by the state government on electricity is more than other places including Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal and Delhi. He said that this has a direct impact on the industrial sector of Punjab and businessmen, traders and industrialists are migrating to other states leaving Punjab.
The AAP leader said that under the rule of the Akali-BJP and the Congress government, mafia and corrupt ‘inspector raj’ occupied Punjab and flourished day by day. “The mafia rule deeply hit the law and order situation of Punjab and the crime reached its peak due to the increase in the number of gangsters here,” he said. Due to increasing unrest, a favorable environment has not been created from the business point of view. Presently, the Punjab industry is on ventilator but the ruling Congress did not take any comprehensive steps for the revival of this industry, asserted Arora.
