Mann, Kejriwal flag Volvo bus services to Delhi Airport

Mann describes it as a revolutionary step to curb the transport of the mafia.

Seven Volvo buses will ply daily from Jalandhar bus stand to Delhi airport. Likewise, similar buses will also move from Amritsar, Pathankot, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Patiala and even from Chandigarh daily to the airport for facilitating the passengers. With the plying of these buses, the passengers will get a comfortable, luxurious and cheap travel to IGI airport at a meagre price, claimed Mann.

The booking of those buses can be done online three months prior to the travel, and also offline at the counters six months ahead of the journey.

"This is a historic occasion when the Punjab government has fulfilled its promise to the people by ending the monopoly of the private transporters and introducing cheap and luxury travel to IGI airport at merely Rs.1,170, thereby stopping loot of people", said Kejriwal while addressing the gathering in Jalandhar.

Squarely blaming the successive Congress and Akali governments for not plying government buses to the airport, he said that their vested interests prohibited them from doing so.

Mann said that the transporter leaders of both these parties minted the money illegally by not allowing government buses to operate on this route, allegedly promoting the transport of the mafia. He also said that these people monopolised the trade and exploited the people.

Kejriwal claimed that the AAP-led government will take every initiative to safeguard the interests of Punjabis and eliminate all sorts of mafia or monopolisation from the state, vowing to make Punjab a gangster-free land.

He said that gangster culture was nurtured by the Akalis and Congress who openly patronised these criminals. He claimed zero tolerance for the same and added that now that the patronisation of these gangsters has ended, they will soon be behind bars.

He rendered the AAP-led government to be an "honest one", giving the rare example of putting its own Minister behind bars on charges of corruption to wipe out this menace and work for the welfare of the people.

"I ask the Opposition, has Mann sahib brought gangsters with him? These gangsters were born under previous governments. No one can protect gangsters, and anti-national elements", he said.

He iterated that a new era of unproven development and growth is being witnessed within three months of the formation of the AAP government, something that the previous governments couldn't do over many years.

Punjab Transport Minister Laljeet Singh Bhullar also addressed the gathering, terming the day historic and claiming that this service would prove helpful to lakhs of NRIs of Punjab.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot informed that the Volvo buses of Punjab Roadways, Punbus and PRTC would arrive directly at the airport terminals.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal paid tributes to Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh at the statute of the great martyr inside the Bus Stand premises.

Cabinet Ministers Lal Chand Kataaruchak, Dr Baljeet Kaur, Harbhajan Singh, Harjot Bains and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal along with several MLAs were also present on the occasion.

Prominent amongst others present on the occasion included Additional Chief Secretary to CM A Venuprasad, Special Principal Secretary to CM Ravi Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori, Commissioner of Police GS Sandhu, and Additional Special Principal Secretary to CM Himanshu Jain. (ANI)