Bajwa targets govt over illegal mining, cites pre-poll vow

Legislators of Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the principal Opposition Congress exchanged barbs outside the Assembly while the two sides played by the book inside the House on Monday.

Punjab Cabinet Minister Aman Arora led the treasury benches as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was absent on the first day of the two-day Assembly session.

Congress legislators, who were led by Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, had asserted before the starting of the session that they would raise issues of corruption, poor law and order and depleting fiscal health of the state. However, none of these issues were discussed in the House.

Bajwa’s attack on the AAP government was rather blunt when he talked about illegal mining. He made a passing reference to an AAP minister’s close relative, who he said was “running an illegal stone crusher”. He, however, did not name the minister. Bajwa also taunted the ruling party over its pre-election promise of raising Rs 20,000 crore in taxes from mining operations after ending illegal quarrying.

Earlier, before the Assembly session began, Bajwa claimed that 32 AAP MLAs were in touch with him and ready to switch sides.

Pargat Singh, another Congress MLA, added fuel to the fire by saying that AAP was a votary of long Vidhan Sabha sessions till they assumed power in 2022.

“It seems they are ready to change their Chief Minister, thus, a short two-day session has been convened,” he speculated. Aman Arora took to social media to retaliate by saying that Bajwa's “transition to the BJP was almost certain”.

Referring to Bajwa’s alleged secret meetings in Bengaluru, Arora accused him of betraying the mandate and focusing solely on his personal ambitions.

"Partap Bajwa has already secured his advance booking with the BJP. I urge (former Congress president) Rahul Gandhi to question Bajwa about what he was doing in Bengaluru recently," said Arora, adding that “his script was prepared” in BJP office, a party that Bajwa's brother had joined recently.

"Bajwa is spreading rumors and indulging in frivolous statements that hold no merit. The Congress leader doesn’t even know whereabouts of his own MLAs. He lost Sandeep Jakhar to the BJP and yet he talks about destabilising our government.,” said Arora dismissing Bajwa's threats.

Arora , along with Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, also held a closed-door meeting with all party MLAs when the House was adjourned for a brief period after obituary references. The two leaders reportedly discussed the floor strategy and told the MLAs on how to respond to attacks by the Opposition benches.

Oppn draws attention to condition of civic infra

The Opposition MLAs drew the attention of the House on issues of poor civic amenities, health and educational infrastructure. BJP MLA Ashwani Sharma said around 10,000 people from outside Punjab have settled in Pathankot, a border town.

SAD MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali and Congress legislator Sukhwinder Singh Kotli demanded that the consent of local residents be made mandatory before setting up a compressed biogas plant.