SIT closing in on real culprit: Capt

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 20

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today hinted at strong action against those named in the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing and sacrilege incidents.

Hitting out at the SAD, while trying to address concerns of his party men who are seeking the arrest of the Badals, the Chief Minister, in his reply to the Governor’s Address, indicated that many heads would roll.

Without taking names, he said: “Though I would not prefer to speak on the investigations by the SIT, the government will take the commission’s report to its logical conclusion.”

Apparently reacting to the pressure within the party to nail Bikram Majithia for his alleged role in the drugs case, Capt Amarinder said he was satisfied with the work of the Special Task Force (STF) on drugs. “There have been demands to arrest the big fish. You give me the names, we will arrest them,” he told the Opposition benches.

Earlier on Monday, Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had taken on the Chief Minister for not taking any action against Majithia despite his name allegedly figuring in the report submitted by the then STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu.

Terming the police firing and sacrilege incidents as law and order issue mismanaged by the Akalis, Capt Amarinder alleged that it was 10 years of misgovernance and collapse of the official machinery at hands of the Akali halqa chiefs. He also blamed the SAD for “eroding” the dignity of the House.

“In Congress, good governance means trusting your officials and giving them the freedom to work, besides rewarding the performers and acting against the underperformers,” he said.

The government has so far facilitated jobs to over 5 lakh youth, besides generating 415 lakh man-days under the MGNREGA during the last two years (2017-19), he claimed.

Policy for contractual staff on cards

Capt Amarinder on Wednesday announced a legislation to regularise contractual employees, besides expediting promotion policy, 2 per cent reservation in professional colleges for wards of government employees (Group C and D), 3 per cent quota for residential plots in housing schemes and group housing scheme for employees at reserved prices.

Cm for memorial to freedom fighters

Capt Amarinder suggested the construction of a memorial in Punjab in the memory of freedom fighters whose names are inscribed in Punjabi in the Andaman jail. The CM said sacrifice in the freedom struggle by hundreds of Punjabis should be highlighted