In Muktsar, Cong leaders feel ‘ignored’

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Muktsar, August 22

Some Congress leaders in Muktsar district are a harried lot these days and claim they have no say in the district administration and police.

For instance, Yadwinder Singh ‘Yadu’, vice-president, Muktsar Municipal Council, recently claimed that the police did not take any action on his complaint about drug consumption in an abandoned building. “When I went to meet the SSP, I had to first put my phone outside his office. Later, I had to wait for 20 minutes to meet him. The issue is still not resolved and it happened under the Congress regime,” Yadu said.

Similarly, Gurwinder Singh ‘Raja Barkandi’, senior vice-president, Youth Congress, Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency, said, “I had recently gone to meet the Muktsar SDM at his office and sent a slip of my name inside. He, however, did not call me for half an hour and later his staff told me to come the next day. I am surprised with the attitude of officials towards Congress leaders.”

Further, a senior Congress leader, along with some local residents, had recently handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner demanding a change of the garbage dumping site on the Malout road.

Jagjit Singh ‘Honey Fattanwala’, general secretary, PPCC, cousin of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, said, “I am never invited for any visit of the Cabinet Minister. Charanjit Singh Channi has visited here twice and Sukhbinder Sarkaria once. But I was never invited or informed about their tours. Once I aired my grievance at a function, but there is no change in the attitude.”

On this, an Akali leader said, “During the SAD-BJP government, we used to call officials at the site to see the problems being faced by the public but Congress men are still handing over memorandums to officials like they are in the Opposition.”

Notably, in the past, some Congress leaders of Lambi also claimed that they had no say in the district administration.