Former minister Tikshn Sood, leaders

Hoshiarpur/ Daljeet Ajnoha/July 29 :
Former cabinet minister and senior BJP leader Tikshn Sood said on Wednesday that he, along with district president Satish Bawa, former mayor Shiv Sood, ex-councillor Surinder Pal Bhatti, Ashok Kumar and Sanju Arora, visited the sit-in by sanitation workers and other casual municipal employees at the municipal corporation premises.
The sanitation workers and other casual staff of the municipal corporation have been agitating for nearly four days against the Punjab government’s policies and staging a sit-in at the civic complex. Following directions from the state unit, the striking employees have announced a shutdown of Hoshiarpur on 30 July from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of a statewide bandh.
Addressing the protesters, Satish Bawa and Shiv Sood said the Bharatiya Janata Party has always supported sanitation workers and the Valmiki community. Tikshn Sood recalled that during the BJP government a bus stand was named after Maharishi Valmiki and thousands of sanitation workers in Punjab were regularised. He alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party, despite making many promises for sanitation workers, resorted to inhuman brutality by lathicharging peacefully protesting employees instead of fulfilling those promises.
He claimed that in Barnala, police beat not only the protesting sanitation workers but also women on orders from the government. While agreeing with calls for a departmental inquiry into the incident and action against the DSP, he said the DSP was merely a pawn and placed the real blame on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the local bodies minister. He demanded that they take moral responsibility for the lathi-charge and resign.
Sood warned that the protestors would not withdraw their agitation until the sanitation workers’ demands — including their regularisation — are met. He assured the demonstrators of his and the BJP’s full support in all possible ways.