‘Rivals’ remove PPP hoarding

The People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) on Thursday alleged that its political rivals had removed a huge hoarding put up by the party over the main Jagraon bridge. The person,who owns the hoarding site,has been threatened not to put up the banner again,it claimed.

Gurpreet Bhatti,PPP in-charge in the district,said: “We had put up a huge banner at the Jagraon bridge a couple of days ago urging the people to support us. The same night,the hoarding was removed. We do not know who did this but we put up a new one the next morning. The second hoarding too was removed. Moreover,the owner of this hoarding site has received threatening calls from some unknown persons,asking him not to entertain us or else he will have to face consequences. We have paid the due rent to this person and have a right to put up our material.”

“It seems that our political rivals,specially the Shiromani Akali dal (Badal),cannot digest the fact that we are gaining ground in Punjab faster than they had anticipated. Hence,they are resorting to such tactics. Earlier as well,SAD(B) leaders have tried to harass us by using the administration against us. We were denied permission to hold rallies in the past and our men rounded up for no apparent reason,” he added.

The PPP leaders have approached the DC Rahul Tewari to apprise him of the matter. When contacted,Tewari said: “As such,my administration has nothing to do with putting up or removing hoardings. This is the task of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation. Moreover,we are under no pressure to clandestinely remove hoardings.”