Channi regrets PM's security breach during virtual meeting on Covid
Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Jan, 2022 12:29 PM
New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday expressed regret over the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the state on January 5.
Channi expressed regret while participating in a virtual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi with Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors/Administrators of states and UTs to review the prevailing Covid situation as well as the ongoing vaccination drive.
Sources said that Channi also wished the Prime Minister a long life.
"Tum salamat raho qayamat tak, aur khuda kare qayamat na ho (May you stay safe till the end and may there be no end)," sources quoting Channi said.
On January 5, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Channi had earlier said that there was no security breach during the Prime Minister's visit to the state.
"There was no security lapse of any kind and there was no situation of any attack," Channi had said.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Channi took oath of office along with his two deputies -- one a Jat Sikh and another belonging to the Hindu community -- at a simple ceremony here in the Punjab capital that was delayed for 20 minutes owing to the late arrival of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.