The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has vowed to wipe the Badal-owned transport mafia out of the state after yet another incident of people being killed by an overspeeding bus of a transport company belonging to them.The power-drunk drivers of the transport companies owned by the Badals are a menace on the roads, said PPCC leaders Sangat Singh Ghilzian, Sunder Sham Arora and Rajnish Kumar Babbi, warning that the entire transport mafia would be destroyed by the Congress once it is back in power in the state.The warning came in the wake of reports of two people being killed and 12 injured as a speeding bus of a Hoshiarpur transport company of the Badals hit a motorcycle and then overturned and fell into a ditch.This is not the first such incident of the killer buses of the Badals gobbling up the lives of innocent people in Punjab, the PPCC leaders pointed out, referring to the killing of two persons, similarly on a motorcycle, in Ludhiana on August 18. The incident had sparked violent protests by the people, who torched the bus. Just two days later, four persons were killed and 13 injured when a Badal bus collided with another private bus.
These incidents reflect the total disregard the drivers of the Badal buses have for the lives of the innocent people, the Punjab Congress leaders said. It is a manifestation of a deep-rooted psychopathological trait, which runs right from the top leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) down to the mafias and others they patronize, the PPCC leaders said.PPCC president Captain Amarinder Singh, they pointed out, had already promised to take away the buses from the Badals and hand them over to the unemployed youth of the state. Not only will that help unshackle the Punjab state of the Badals’ transport mafia but will also provide gainful employment to the youth, the Punjab Congress leaders said.The extent to which the Badals have unleashed an atmosphere of terror and violence through their transport mafia is evident in the fact that no rival transport companies are allowed to operate in the state under their regime, according to the PPCC leaders. They cited a media report pointing to a victimization campaign unleashed by the Indo-Canadian Transport Company, also owned by the Badals, against the owner of a rival bus service on the IGIA (New Delhi) – Punjab route.The Congress, they said, will do everything in its power to put an immediate stop to these horrific activities and make sure that every person guilty of terrorizing and killing innocent people is stringently punished.