Jalandhar, June 13 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Saturday directly engaged with traders, shopkeepers and business owners at a meeting of the Punjab State Traders Commission (PSTC) here, reaffirming the government’s commitment to resolving their concerns through dialogue and responsive governance.

Highlighting small traders as the backbone of the economy, Kejriwal said that while previous governments ignored their issues and subjected them to harassment and extortion, the Mann government had ended such practices and established the PSTC to ensure that even the smallest problems faced by the trading community were addressed promptly and effectively.

CM Mann said Punjab had broken free from decades of exploitation and misgovernance, ushering in an era of transparent, development‑driven governance focused on public welfare. He said that, unlike previous governments, the AAP government had the confidence to directly seek feedback from people after four years in office, while its work on irrigation, employment, public services and infrastructure had transformed lives across Punjab.

Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said the Bhagwant Mann government had completed four years in office. He said he did not recall any government in Punjab’s history that could sit face-to-face with people and hold such discussions after four years in power. He said earlier, when the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Akali Dal governments went among the people after four years, villagers would not even allow them to enter.

He said people would stand with shoes in their hands to beat them, whereas today, when the AAP leadership went among the people, they smiled, praised them and were ready to embrace them. He said people appreciated their work.

Referring to a roadshow, Kejriwal said that during their visit to Bathinda after securing excellent Municipal Corporation results and forming the Mayor, people came out of their shops to welcome them. He said their body language showed how happy they were to see Bhagwant Mann and the AAP leaders. He said he was seeing the same reaction in Jalandhar and that the praise from traders suggested something extraordinary was happening in Punjab’s history, that a government had completed four years, and people still liked it and wanted it back.

Recalling his childhood, Kejriwal said he used to spend summer holidays at his grandfather’s home in Siwani village, where his family had a grocery shop at the bus stand. He said he would sit there in the afternoons and had known since then that nobody in the system listened to small traders.

He said that even when governments discussed Punjab’s economy, GDP and development, the focus remained on large industrialists and investments worth hundreds or thousands of crores, whereas the real backbone of the state was the small trader. He said everyone talked about traders, but he had not seen a single government or political party that actually went to traders and resolved their problems.

–IANS

vg/dan