PATIALA, July 26: Former Industries Minister of Punjab and All India Congress Committee member Brahm Mohindra here today demanded that the BJP MLAs in Punjab should immediately quit the Parkash Singh Badal government in view of the statement given by state BJP chief Daya Singh Sodhi that the party had not been taken into confidence on the issue of increase in power tariff hike.He alleged that the BJP was adopting double standards and playing a fraud on the people of Punjab. While the party party chief was maintaining that the party was not taken into confidence on the issue, the ministers continued to cling to their chairs.Mohindra alleged that the Punjab government had recently entered into an agreement with a Canadian firm to raise loans from different companies to help the Punjab State Electricity Board to come out of the red. While the funds to bring out the board from the financial mess were still on, there was hardly an justification in hiking the power tariff by 33 per cent.He demanded that the terms and conditions of this agreement be made public to ensure that the interests of the state electricity board were not bartered in the agreement.The Congress leader alleged that the industrial growth rate in the state during the Akali rule had declined steeply.Mohindra alleged that the ruling Akali Dal-BJP government had gone back on its electoral promise of abolition of octroi in the state. This had caused widespread resentment among the trading community.He demanded that increase in house rent in the municipal limits of Patiala which Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had himself announced on the May Day rally from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent be implemented forthwith.Meanwhile a meeting of the District Congress Committee, Patiala city, was held here today under the chairmanship of Raj Kumar Malhotra, senior vice president of the unit, where it was unanimously demanded that the Punjab government should forthwith withdraw the hike in power tariff.By another resolution, the meeting which was among others attended by Brahm Mohindra, Jaspal Nani, Suresh Gogia and Raj Kumar Papan, Surinder Sharma and Atul Sharma, demanded that the hike in bus fares be withdrawn immediately.The meeting also resolved that about 5000 party workers from Patiala would participate in the July 28 party rally at Delhi which would be led by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh.
