Ludhiana: Trouble seems to be brewing for Congress over the issue of demanding water and sewerage bills from city residents owning properties measuring up to 125 square yards.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday has once again raked up the issue and the party has declared that on Monday its functionaries will stage protest outside homes of all 62 Congress councillors.
A delegation of BJP met Ludhiana mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu on Friday and once again demanded the roll back of the charges imposed on the city residents and also informed him about the decision to protest.
Pushpinder Singal, district president of BJP, said, “Ever since the Congress government took over in Punjab, every other day new tax is imposed on the citizens.
The new one in this list is the water and sewerage charges from the residents who own houses measuring up to 125 square yards.
This tax, which has been imposed from April 1, has given a big jolt to thousands of poor and middle class house owners who are still unable to come out of the devastation caused by Covid-19.
By imposing this tax, Congress has proved that it is anti people and the biggest enemy of the poor people as party’s leaders did not even think about the on ground situation and went ahead with this move which will prove to be disastrous for the common man.” Singal also added, “Our opposition is towards handing out contract of collection of the water and sewerage bills to private contractors, which indicates that already bankrupt Congress government wants private players to further loot the money of the taxpayers.
We have been continuously demanding rollback of this new tax and cancelling the contract with this private company, but till now neither mayor nor any of the 62 councillors have acted.
So we have decided to protest on Monday and our campaign will continue till the time the voice of people is heard.” Earlier, the BJP also observed a black day to mark the imposition of emergency in India by Congress 46 years ago.