Students don’t let Badal family-owned buses into Moga

Thursday, 07/05/2015

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MOGA: Members of the Punjab Students Union (PSU) blocked the entry of the Parkash Singh Badal family-owned buses to the city on Wednesday during a protest called by the union against the molestation and death of a 13-year-old girl after she, along with her mother, was pushed out of a moving bus in Moga on April 29.

The students from various schools, colleges and industrial training institutes (ITIs) blocked the Ferozepur-Chandigarh national highway at the main chowk of the city and did not allow any bus of the Badal family to enter the city and the bus stand.

The protesting students were demanding cancellation of route permits of the Orbit Aviation Private Limited and other bus companies, owned by the Badal family, and the registration a criminal case against Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is the managing director of the company.

Addressing the protesting students, state president Karamjit Singh Kotkapura and Moga district president of PSU Sukhjit Singh Bukanwala alleged that though the Orbit company buses were off the roads, but many other buses owned by Sukhbir Singh Badal are being run across the state,

They should not be allowed to operate, they said.

The student leaders urged the people to boycott the buses owned by the Badal family and prefer to board public transport buses, including those of Punjab Roadways and Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), in order to end the terror of the Badal family on the roads.

“If the absence of Orbit buses can lead to a hike of `10 lakh per day in the income of the government buses, the absence of all private buses can change the fate of public transport across Punjab,” they further said.

Meanwhile, the student body criticised the canecharge on students during a protest at Faridkot and said that the registration of a case against students was a one-sided action of the Punjab police. STATE GOVT’S EFFIGIES BURNT IN BATHINDA BATHINDA: Activists of the Left parties burnt an effigy of the Punjab government to protest against the Moga bus molestation and murder incident and demanded registration of a case against owners of the Orbit transport bus company.

The protesters belonging to Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI (M) and CPI (ML), who burnt the effigy at the Sadbhawna chowk here, also took our protest march in the city. District secretary of CPI Jagjit Singh Joga said that when, a girl had been raped in a taxi in Delhi, a case had been registered against the owners of the cab company.

Members of the BKU (EktaUgrahan), Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and Naujawan Bharat Sabha, also organised rallies and burnt effigies of the state government at two villages — Gidder and Bugger — of Bathinda district.

Shingara Singh Mann, district president, BKU (EktaUgrahan) accused the Punjab government of encouraging hooliganism and said that the Moga incident and police action in Hamirgarh village showed the high-headedness of the hooligans.