Impose Prez's rule in Pb: Amarinder after 'lapse' in PM's security
Darpan News Desk IANS, 05 Jan, 2022 12:47 PM
Chandigarh, Jan 5 (IANS) Holding the Punjab government squarely responsible for the "gross security lapse" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, that eventually led to cancellation of all his programmes, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President's rule.
"This government has lost all the moral and constitutional authority to continue in office as it failed in its constitutional duty to provide security to our Prime Minister," the former Chief Minister said in a statement.
He said, by trying to deflect the issue and claim that it was a spontaneous protest by some people that blocked the Prime Minister's route, the government was trying to defend the "indefensible" and "run away" from its responsibility.
"If the Prime Minister of the country has to cancel all his programmes owing to a grave security breach, what should be the plight of the ordinary person living in Punjab?" Amarinder Singh asked, while asserting that the sooner this government be dismissed "better" it would be for the state and its people.
He said that it was a "deliberate mischief" of the government to disrupt the Prime Minister's programmes in Punjab as he was to start various development projects to the tune of more than Rs 50,000 crore, which would "benefit" the people of the state.
The former Chief Minister "regretted" that this government had "stooped so low" that it "orchestrated" disruption of the rally and "did not" provide proper security to the Prime Minister and he had to cancel his programmes.
"Just because he belongs to the opposition party does not mean that you disrupt his programmes, after all he is the Prime Minister of the entire country," Amarinder Singh told his predecessor Charanjit Channi, while adding, "What happened today was shameful and disgraceful and the government and the Chief Minister cannot escape the responsibility for it".
This comes just days after the COP26 climate summit, where India pledged to cut emissions to net zero by 2070, reduce carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030, and raise the share of renewables in the energy mix to 50 per cent, among others, before staging a last-minute climbdown opposing a commitment to "phase out" coal.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri violence probe and to ensure fairness and independence in the investigation.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday junked petitions against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which upheld the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab Director General of Police.
Punjab has always stood against external intrusions and hence must be considered as a security case, not just as an economic case at the time of budgetary allocation, state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said here on Tuesday. Badal made the demand during a virtual discussion with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on stepping up investment, infrastructure and growth in the country.
After a lacklustre outing in the 2017 Assembly polls, Kejriwal's AAP has rejuvenated its efforts to make a political dent in Goa for the upcoming 2022 state Assembly polls.
Addressing the gathering during a function to mark the death anniversary of former Punjab minister and Congress leader Santokh Singh Randhawa here, the Chief Minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for re-opening the Kartarpur corridor ahead of Prakash Purb of Guru Nanak Dev.
