Will raise old-age pension to Rs1,500, say AAP leaders
Saturday, 03/10/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Gurdaspur : If the ever increasing number of people seen at AAP rallies is any indication, then the leaders of the state’s three mainline political outfits, SAD, BJP and the Congress, have a reason to worry.
For the second time in a week, the party put up a good show in the district, home turf of AAP convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur.
Top party functionaries, including Sanjay Singh, Bhagwant Mann, Naresh Yadav and Chhotepur, attended the proceedings at Kalanaur, 25 km from Gurdaspur.
What is disturbing for rival parties is the fact that a majority of the audience today comprised of youngsters who themselves volunteered to be a part of the rally.
The leaders said the very first decision the party would take, if voted to power in 2017, would be to enhance the old-age pension from Rs250 per month to Rs1,500 per month.
Chottepur reminded the audience that apart from being ‘Gandhi Jayanti’, the day was also celebrated as the ‘International Day of Non-Violence’. He asked the crowd to shun the path of violence and resort to peaceful means even if “the government of the day commits atrocities on you like the Punjab government is committing on the farming community.”
Speaking on the sidelines, he lambasted the SAD-BJP government and sought the resignation of Agriculture Minister Tota Singh in pesticide scam and Rural Development Minister Sikander Singh Maluka for failure of MGNREGA scheme in the state.
He said Tota Singh should take moral responsibility for the pesticide scam while Maluka had committed a "colossal blunder" by claiming that the Centre's flagship scheme MGNREGA was a "total failure in Punjab."
"Maluka should owe responsibility as it was his department which runs the scheme in the state. How come the scheme was running successfully in other states like UP and Bihar?" he countered.
