State govt securing votes through VAT paid by us: Pb traders

Criticising the 'Mukhyamantri Teerth Yatra Yojana', Punjab traders associations today charged that the state government is securing votes by sending people on pilgrimage for free by using the VAT paid by the traders.
"This is tragic. Industrial trade is falling in the state. The government has collected crores of rupees as VAT but do not have enough to repay our outstanding amount," Chiranjeet Singh Mangi, Jalandhar Chamber of Industry and Commerce general secretary said.
Punjab Vyapar Sena President Ravinder Dhir said that state government's decision is "laughable"
"They are not returning traders' outstanding VAT and sending people on pilgrimage for free. I have no issue with the introduction of train for pilgrims but they should also return traders' VAT," Dhir said.

Foundation of Jalandhar Traders Association president Gurusharan Singh said that they don't know what the government wants.
"It is tragic that people who are behind the decline of trade are running the government. History stands witness that a government cannot run without trade and traders," Singh said.

The three leaders said that by introducing a train for pilgrimage during the election year, government is buying votes through traders' VAT.
They said that if the government really wanted to do start such an initiative for pilgrims, they could have done it three-four years back.
But they deliberately did it during the election year because they wanted to secure their votes, Mangi and Singh said.

The government is not working on any other plan. People are not getting old age pension. Electricity and water bill are forcibly been implicated on people. And to evade any opposition in this regard, the government has initiated this train, Dhir said.
Recently the Punjab and Haryana high court had questioned the government regarding the budget of Teerth Yatra Yojana.
Earlier senior BJP leader Laxmikanta Chawla had written twice to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned why the old age pension was not being given when the government has enough finances to start a train.