Special Session of Punjab Assembly: Day 1 proceedings end in 11 min

The first day of the two-day Special Session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha ended in just 11 minutes with the House paying tributes to Abohar cloth merchant Sanjay Verma, who was shot dead by gangsters earlier this week.

During the Obituary References, the proposal for including the name of Verma, who was shot dead by gangsters from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, was made by Balluana MLA Amandeep Singh Musafir. The Congress, led by Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa supported this proposal, saying that his murder earlier this week had sent shockwaves across various districts of the Malwa region.

When Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan praised the Punjab Police for swift action against the criminals involved, Bajwa maintained that there was still no clarification on the action by the Punjab Police.

Aam Aadmi Party state president Aman Arora also sought the inclusion of 260 persons killed in the Ahmedabad air crash in June in the Obituary References.

The House also paid their respects to Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal, MLA from Tarn Taran who died recently; former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, litterateur Rattan Singh Jaggi and three soldiers - Naik Surinder Singh and Lance Naiks Baljit Singh and Gurpreet Singh, who lost their lives in the service of the motherland. The House observed two minutes silence and paid their homage to the departed souls.

While CM Bhagwant Mann and some of his Cabinet colleagues were absent today, SAD MLA from Majitha Ganieve Kaur Majithia, who is the wife of Akali leader Bikram Majithia, was also absent. As many as 11 Congress MLAs were present in the House today.