PHAGWARA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday staged a protest march in Phagwara against what it termed the Punjab government’s attempts to obstruct its awareness campaigns on central welfare schemes. The demonstration, led by former Union minister Som Parkash, Anita Som Parkash, BJP Punjab general secretary Rajiv Pahwa, former mayor Arun Khosla, and party leader Pankaj Chawla, began at the Rest House Phagwara and concluded at Hargobind Nagar Chowk.
Addressing party workers during the march, Som Parkash launched a sharp attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, describing it as the “PAAP government” of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann. He alleged that the state government was deliberately preventing BJP workers from holding outreach camps in villages, where the party sought to spread awareness about the schemes of the Union government. He claimed that these schemes were designed to provide direct benefits to the poor and needy through Aadhaar linkage, but the state government was attempting to block such efforts.
Som Parkash further alleged that the Mann government intended to misappropriate funds provided under central grants for welfare programmes and divert them for electoral purposes. He charged that the obstruction of BJP’s awareness activities was part of this strategy. “Our workers only want to ensure that benefits from the Centre reach the rightful beneficiaries, but instead of cooperating, the state government is putting up hurdles, ” he said, adding that even some BJP leaders and activists had been placed under house arrest to prevent them from organising camps.
Criticising the state’s land pooling policy, Som Parkash said it had already invited widespread public anger and was another sign of the Punjab government’s failure. “The people of Punjab themselves have rejected such anti-people policies, ” he remarked.
Following the march, BJP activists burnt an effigy of the AAP government at Hargobind Nagar Chowk and raised slogans against the Mann-led dispensation. The protest, however, ended peacefully, with no untoward incident reported. Police maintained that law and order remained completely under control.