Tarn Taran (Punjab) [India], October 31 : Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday expressed solidarity with the staff of the PRTC and PUN Bus employees union who are protesting against the alleged systematic privatisation of Punjab's government transport services. He said that the public sector transport will be completely overhauled once the Congress government is formed in Punjab.
The transport unions, which staged a protest in Tarn Taran today, alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government, by inducting private buses under the kilometer scheme was trying to privatise the state transport services. This, they added, was a subtle way to start the eventual privatisation of the transport services in Punjab.
The union members expressed their gratitude to Warring, reminding him that it was during his brief tenure as the transport minister in the previous Congress regime, which had ensured the survival of the public sector transport in the state.
Warring said he was not surprised by the AAP's intention of selling off the transport PSUs to private players. "The AAP is following the BJP's rule book, which has already sold most of the country's PSUs to some of its favourites", he noted.
The PCC president assured them that once the Congress government is formed in Punjab after the next elections, the public sector transport will be revived and completely overhauled. "It will be among the best public transport systems in the public sector in the country", Warring assured them.
Later, during the 'door-to-door' campaign in support of the party candidate Karanbir Singh Burj, the PCC president referred to the everyday 'sit-ins' and protests by various people and organisations against the AAP government in Tarn Taran.
"If anybody has to assess the AAP government's performance in Punjab, he should visit Tarn Taran and judge for himself", he said, while referring to the daily protests by the people who have been betrayed and let down by the AAP government.
The PCC president said that people were looking forward to Congress returning to take over the reins of Punjab and put it back on track. He said, people were regretting that they had wasted four precious years already by trusting the alluring promises of the AAP, which eventually proved bogus.