SAD to start protest against pooling policy from Sep 1
Arvind Kejriwal
".
Making the announcement after presiding over a joint meeting of SAD core committee, working committee, constituency in-charges and district presidents, SAD president
Sukhbir Singh Badal
said the party will perform an ardas (prayer) at Akal Takht on Aug 31 before launching its protest.
Badal said he would lead the first 'jatha' (batch) which will march Gurdwara from Amb Sahib on Sep 1 to "the new 'Sheesh Mahal' at the nearby Panchayat Bhawan which Arvind Kejriwal had made his residence in Punjab".
"Party workers from each constituency in Punjab will subsequently participate in a continuous dharna and march from the same site in 'jathas' of 500 persons each indefinitely till the AAP govt revokes the land pooling scheme," he added.
He said a three-member coordinating committee comprising Daljit Singh Cheema, N K Sharma, and Mohali district president Parminder Singh Sohana had also been formed for this purpose.
"The morcha is dedicated to safeguarding Punjab's farmers, khet mazdoor, traders, and other sections of Punjabi society, all of whom will be badly hit by Arvind Kejriwal's Rs 30,000 crore deal with builders of Delhi to collect funds to expand his own political interests in other parts of the country," Badal said.
He alleged that top civil and police officers in the districts were pressuring landowners to "give affidavits that they want to be included in the land pooling scheme".
He warned the officers to desist from such practice, saying that "only a year and a half [of the present AAP led govt] was left."
'Forgive me, return to the mother party': Sukhbir to rebels
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal also made an appeal on Thursday to rebels to return to the party fold. Invoking the resolution of Akal Takht yesterday, which noted that its unity call had not yielded any meaningful result so far, Badal said, "I bow my head to the takht.
I feel it is the duty of every Sikh to obey the directives of the Singh Sahiban. I appeal with folded hands to all Akali leaders who have parted ways with the 105-year-old mother party to return to their roots to strengthen the panth and Punjab.
I also appeal to them to forgive me if I have hurt them in any manner whatsoever."
Alleges witch hunt to target Majithia
Badal called the police action against SAD functionary and his brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia as a "witch hunt". He said Majithia was falsely implicated in a fabricated case after repeated investigations by various special investigation yeams (SITs) failed to indict him of any wrongdoing. Badal said SAD would approach the Punjab governor and apprise him of the entire matter soon.
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