MLAs close ranks, take on minister

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 18

Post the recent demolition drive ordered by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu, most of the Doaba MLAs seem to have turned against him.

Other than Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh with whom Sidhu had joined Congress ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, most of the MLAs here have begun issuing statements against the minister.

While it was Jalandhar-West MLA Sushil Rinku who chose to defy Sidhu’s orders first by stopping the demolition ordered by him, Jalandhar-Central MLA Rajinder Beri, too, had followed suit.

As Sidhu turned up at Kapurthala last evening to take a round of historical buildings that are to be included in the proposed Mughal circuit, neither ex-minister Rana Gurjeet Singh, who is close to Rinku, nor Sultanpur Lodhi legislator Navtej Cheema turned up to see him.

A CM loyalist, Cheema went ahead to say that Sidhu should have “the courtesy to keep MLAs in loop about his visits”. In August last year too, Cheema had chosen not to welcome Sidhu during his tour to check sewage treatment plants set up by environmentalist Balbir S Seechewal.

Even Rana Gurjeet Singh seemed somewhat annoyed, “Sidhu called me up at 2:35 pm yesterday that he will be visiting Kapurthala around 4 pm. Had he told me about his plans well in advance, I would have welcomed him and given him some input on tourism promotion. I told him that I am on my way to Chandigarh and that he should put off his plans for Kapurthala to some other day. But he chose to continue with his tour.”

Questioned by mediapersons on MLAs not accompanying him, Sidhu said, “I am on a departmental visit. I have not called anyone here.”