Jalandhar, June 10
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal will step down from his post in compliance with constitutional norms soon. Decks have also been cleared for the appointment of Paramdeep Singh Gill as the new DGP.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Sukhbir said the law of the land was supreme and he would be resigning as the Deputy CM in the coming days. “Due to certain reasons, I have not been able to contest elections and will step down in view of the constitutional norms,” he added.

He also confirmed the selection of Gill as the new DGP and said he would be joining before the present incumbent KK Atri retired on June 30. Gill is a 1974 batch officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre and is currently posted as Commissioner, Vigilance.

Sukhbir decried the lax handling of a sensitive issue like increasing racist attacks on Indian students studying in Australia by India and demanded sending a high-level delegation Down Under to convey concern on such incidents.

He decried the statements of Union External Affairs Minister SM Krishna that put onus of the attacks on the behaviour of Indian students rather than strongly taking up the issue through diplomatic channels.

“Punjab has a reason to worry since most of the victims belong to our state. I, along with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, have already met the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister and Australian High Commissioner in Delhi expressing concern over these racial attacks,” he said.

MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal has forcefully raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, he said.

Unveiling the three-year development vision agenda of the government, the Deputy CM said that by the end of July Punjab would come out with phased, time-bound action-oriented plan with a clear stipulation to meet all promises in their agenda by the schedule date. Focusing on transparent governance, Sukhbir said the effort of the government would be to make all public services departments people-friendly and also reduce red tapism and corruption.

On unemployment, he said plans were in place to launch a massive recruitment drive in all departments, especially education and police to provide job opportunities to youth. He said recruitment would be merit based and done in a transparent manner. Sukhbir said the new Industrial Policy had been prepared in consultation with UNIDO and the state government wanted to share this policy with industrial outfits before notifying it.