Tarn Taran diary: From SAD, Cong to AAP, MLA Laljit Singh Bhullar's journey

Laljit Singh Bhullar (41), AAP MLA from Patti, had never dreamt of defeating the stalwart politician, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, a four-time MLA from Patti, with a comfortable margin. Bhullar had worked under him as a SAD worker for years. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s sister Perneet Kaur is married to Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. Bhullar belongs to a simple family and is owner of 60 acres of agriculture land. He runs a commission shop at the grain market, Patti. He started his political career as a SAD activist and was a staunch supporter of Kairon till 2015 when sacrilege incidents were reported in the state. During this period, he got attracted towards the speech style of Congress leader Harminder Singh Gill and left Kairon. Meanwhile, Gill was elected as the MLA in the 2017 elections from Patti. To his surprise, he was falsely implicated in a criminal case during the Congress regime so he re-joined hands with Kairon in 2018 and worked for SAD candidate Bibi Jagir Kaur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, he was impressed with Arvind Kejriwal’s personality and joined the AAP. The Municipal Council poll, held in February 2021, was a litmus test of his ability. He said he launched a campaign in favour of AAP candidates for the Municipal Council poll, Patti, in a phased manner. On the day of polling, he was detained and tortured by the police and the decision was condemned by his supporters. He alleged that bogus votes were polled by the Congress that time. He managed to garner sympathy votes and the party candidates performed much better in the elections, despite ill tactics by Congress leaders. In the meantime, the AAP leadership nominated him as the Halka in-charge. He said his only aim was to serve the society. Being a commission agent not only helped him garner support from the local people, but also win the recent elections comfortably. Lajlit Singh Bhullar bagged 57,323 votes, while Adesh Partap Singh Kairon of the SAD secured 46,324 votes in his favour. Harminder Singh Gill managed to woo 33,009 voters in the 2022 elections. He said he would remain grateful to Patti residents forever.

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Infighting in tarn taran civic body fails to die down

Officials and employees of the Municipal Council (MC), Tarn Taran, are up in arms against each other for the past six months. Even the change in the state government has failed to yield any positive results. Few days back, Deputy Commissioner Kulwant Singh said the allegations levelled by Municipal Council employees against Executive Officer (EO) had been informed to the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Urban), but a report was yet to be released. Dr Sukhdev Singh Lauhuka, district president of the Consumer Forum, Tarn Taran, in a letter written to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, has demanded a detailed inquiry into the alleged corrupt practices of the Municipal Council, Tarn Taran. Dr Lauhuka, who is also a social worker, said the functioning of the council is an open controversy and has gone viral on social media where officials and employees were levelling serious allegations of corruption against each other. Dr Lauhuka said normal works like a No Objection Certificate (NoC) were also not cleared without bribery.

A memorial in utter neglect

The memorial erected in the memory of martyr Rajwinder Singh in Goindwal Sahib seeks immediate attention. Col AS Gill (retd), district head of the Guardians of Governance (GOG) from the Khadoor Sahib tehsil, had brought this matter into the notice of the district administration months ago, but to no avail. The GOG team said stray animals were being spotted on the site and residents of nearby areas were making illegal use of the memorial complex. Residents of Goindwal Sahib, too, had demanded the maintenance of the memorial and said it was disrespect to the martyr.

(Contributed by Gurbaxpuri)