Next general elections crucial for country: Amarinder
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 May, 2022 10:13 AM
Chandigarh, May 3 (IANS) Former Punjab Chief Minister and President of Punjab Lok Congress (PLC), Amarinder Singh, said on Tuesday that the 2024 general elections will be crucial for the country as there is a need for a stable and strong government.
Speaking at a meeting of the PLC candidates who contested the recent Assembly elections in Punjab, he said given the geopolitical situation previaling in the world in view of the Russia-Ukraine war, the country needs a stable, mature and strong leadership, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is providing.
State BJP General Secretary Subhash Sharma also attended the meeting.
Amarinder Singh also said that the PLC and the BJP will jointly fight the municipal corporations elections in Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar and Jalandhar.
The meeting took stock of the prevailing situation in the state and also reviewed the performance of the party candidates in the last Assembly elections.
Amarinder Singh said that while the people of Punjab voted overwhelmingly for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with great expectations, there is already a strong sense of disillusionment against the state government.
The former Chief Minister claimed that not only has the AAP government backed out on several promises and commitments, it is also hurting the pride of Punjabis by usurping their power and rights.
He said Punjabis would never tolerate an outsider like Arvind Kejriwal running the government from Delhi, pointing out how Kejriwal is conducting meetings of Punjab officials in Delhi and issuing commands to them.
It is unconstitutional and unacceptable, he said.
Addressing the meeting, Subhash Sharma said although the BJP-PLC alliance could not win many seats, a strong foundation has already been laid.
He said while the immediate focus will be on the municipal elections which are due within less than a year from now, the alliance will be a formidable force in the 2024 general elections.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court
Earlier, four persons, including two Afghanistan nationals, were arrested by the NCB. The fifth accused Shamim Ahmad was arrested from from Laxmi Nagar. A person called Shahid controlled the hawala racket of Dubai. Seeing that Shamim had good links with middlemen working in Dubai, Shahid included him in his gang.
Conceding the proposal of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to introduce home delivery of atta under National Food Security Act (NFSA), the entire state has been divided into eight zones and the service will commence in one zone in the first phase, in two zones in the second phase, and in the remaining five zones in the last and third phase.
A decision to this effect was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the posts belong to Group A, B and C. Major departments include Home Affairs, School Education, Health, Power and Technical Education.
Besides Mittal, the Chancellor of Lovely Professional University (LPU), others who were elected in the recently concluded biennial election from Punjab are businessman Sanjeev Arora and AAP Punjab co in-charge Raghav Chadha.
In April, 1.15 kg of cocaine concealed in pills ingested by a passenger was seized at Hyderabad, and in another case one kg of cocaine was seized at Bengaluru in August 2021. Apart from Mumbai and Hyderabad, seizures of cocaine have also been affected at other airports also.
