October 20-21 session legal; won’t allow team to survey SYL land: Mann govt

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 14

Taking the “charges levelled” by the Punjab Governor (on the special sitting of the Vidhan Sabha) and by Opposition parties (on the SYL issue) against it head-on, the Punjab Government has not only declared that the “session on October 20-21 is legal and will be held”, but also announced that no central team would be allowed to survey the land acquired for the construction of the SYL canal.

Key Cabinet decisions

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• Nod to fill 106 posts of clerk cadre in the Department of General Administration, Punjab Civil Secretariat
• Nod to evolve a mechanism for constructing medical colleges at Mohali, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Malerkotla and Sangrur
• Nod to extend services of 481 vet pharmacists working in 582 hospitals across the state as service providers for one year

Speaking for the government after a Cabinet meeting this afternoon, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema and Governance Reforms Minister Aman Arora said though no formal discussion on next week’s Assembly session took place at the meeting, the Council of Ministers, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, approved Bills on amendments to the Goods and Services Tax.

Important Bills to be tabled

The Governor should not have declared the session illegal as important Bills are to be tabled at two-day sitting. — Harpal Cheema, Punjab FM

These would be tabled at the special sitting of the Vidhan Sabha and the proposed two-day sitting would be held as scheduled. This special sitting of the Budget session was completely legal, they said, in response to a letter written by the office of Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, declaring the session as illegal, business to be conducted there as unlawful and ab initio void.

“The Governor should not have declared the session illegal, as important Bills are to be tabled at the two-day sitting. These Bills are for the good of Punjab and for the country. The Governor would do well if he were to change his legal advisers,” said Cheema.

Arora said though they had not received any letter from the Governor stating that the Bills passed in the previous sitting of the Vidhan Sabha on June 19-20 were accepted or rejected, the government hoped that the Bills to be tabled now and the previous ones passed by the House in June got his assent.

On the possibility of central teams visiting Punjab on November 1 to survey the land for the SYL canal, Arora said no survey would be allowed by the government in the state.

“Though we have not received any intimation, we will oppose the team. Since a claim to this effect has been made by the Akali Dal, maybe they are trying to create trouble in Punjab in cahoots with the BJP on November 1 to run away from the debate on important Punjab issues proposed by Chief Minister Mann. They fear getting exposed in the debate for how they have wronged Punjab and sold its interests for personal gains since decades,” he said.