Badal misusing state machinery for personal interest: AAP

Expressing grave concern over the recent road accidents in Punjab involving buses of Orbit Aviation owned by Parkash Singh Badal's family, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader H.S. Phoolka on Sunday accused the Punjab Chief Minister of misusing the state machinery for personal interest.

Demanding the Chief Minister's resignation, Phoolka said the attitude of these people is as if they own the roads, adding they expect that everybody should give them a way.

"The reason behind this attitude is only that these buses belong to Chief Minister Badal. He is using the state property for his own purposes and running private business. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal have no right to sit on these posts," he added.

Commenting on the recent accidents, the AAP leader pointed out that these bus drivers never stop at red signals, adding no police officer dares to stop or penalise them.

"Even the staff misbehaves with the passengers and always carries goons with them. These kinds of accidents are taking place every day. Yesterday also, the bus was trying overtaking a truck and collided with the other bus which was coming from the other side," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, a speeding bus of Dabwali Transport, a company owned by the Badal family crushed two people to death on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway near Mullanpur. The victims, Hardev Singh (61) and his son Harmeet Singh (24), were on a motorcycle. The victims were welders. Harmeet Singh, who was riding pillion, was carrying tools. The bike was hit from the rear. Both the driver and conductor fled after the incident. The bus driver has been booked.

Another accident took place in Jalandhar yesterday in which four persons were killed and 13 were severely injured when collision took place between Orbit bus and a bus of GSK Transport.