Accept all demands of traders and announce them in forthcoming state budget on June 27: PPBM to Bhagwant Mann Govt 

Ludhiana, June 19, 2022: A working committee meeting of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) held here today under the leadership of the chairman Pawan Lehar, state general secretary Sunil Mehra, district vice president Pawan Sharma, OP Bhardwaj, secretary Ayush Aggarwal and advisor Ashok Juneja.

The meeting passed a resolution urging upon the state government to accept all the demands of the traders and announce them in the forthcoming state budget on June 27. The meeting sought that all the guarantees promised by the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab should be announced in the forthcoming state budget, professional tax be abolished, the rates of power be fixed at Rs.5 per unit for traders, and state tax on petrol and diesel be reduced. 

"The today's meeting also urged upon the state government to control law and order situation so that traders should do their routine working without any fear", said Sunil Mehra, adding that if the state government failed to accept their demands in the forthcoming state government then the PPBM would be constrained to launch a massive traders movement across Punjab, the entire responsibility of which shall lie on the state government itself.

Earlier, addressing the meeting, Mehra said the mandal had already submitted a memorandum to the Punjab Governor apprising him of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, and urging upon him to take all the necessary steps for ensuring security to traders so that they could do their business fearlessly. He alleged that the present state government had been failing on every front. He added that people of Punjab had voted to the AAP for a change but nothing had changed so far. Rather, the situation was worsening day by day. As a result, the traders were feeling harassed and frustrated a lot, he added. 

Pawan Lehar said that the youth were not getting any employment in the state. As a result, the youth were migrating to other states and abroad as well. All the promises made by Bhagwant Mann and his government had proved total lies, he added.

Pawan Sharma said that there were over 20,000 hosiery units in Ludhiana but it was a matter of concern that there was not a single exhibition centre so far. 

Ashok Juneja said people of the state were facing acute shortage of power whereas before elections the AAP had promised to supply 24x7 power supply to every sector. The state government seemed to have forgotten its promises after coming to power, he added. He called upon traders to get united to press upon the state government to accede to its demands. 

Among others, Ashwani Mahajan, Pawan Malhotra, Jaswant Singh Birdi, Ravi Dhawan, Adv Munish Ahuja, Rakesh Dhawan, Kamal Gupta, Sanjeev Kundra, Parveen Sharma, Jatinder Nanda, Gopal Bhandari, Radhey Shyam Sharma, Amit Gupta, Ved Bhandari and others were present.