Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today vowed to wipe out all gangsters from the state in the crackdown launched against them by the police.
The police were hard on the heels of gangsters and all those taking the law in their hands, and none of them would be spared, he told reporters on the sidelines of the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected Congress MLA from Shahkot, Hardev Singh Laddi, at the Assembly in Chandigarh.
Notably, after gunning down most-wanted gangster Vicky Gounder earlier this year, the Punjab police had decided to focus on other dreaded criminals and gangsters, who are accused in several cases of murder and extortion.
The chief minister thanked the people of Shahkot for Mr Laddi's resounding victory, which, he said, empowered the ruling Congress to pass important legislations in the interest of the people.
On the issue of the reported violence against Dalit Sikhs in Shillong, Amarinder Singh said he was aware of the matter and was keeping a tab on the situation.
He said, according to reports received by him from the Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh-led the delegation that visited Shillong yesterday, there was no damage of any kind to any Gurdwara in the Meghalaya capital.
The delegation was satisfied with the steps taken by the Meghalaya government to control the situation, Amarinder Singh said.
Responding to a query, the chief minister said his government was doing everything possible to make Punjab pollution-free.
Referring to the incident of molasses leak into the Beas river from a sugar factory last month, he said one isolated accident could not be seen as mass-scale pollution of all rivers in the state.
Meanwhile,Mr Laddi, who was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana KP Singh, thanked the people of his constituency for expressing faith in the policies and programmes of the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government. Mr Laddi termed it a victory of the pro-people initiatives being taken and executed by state government for the welfare of all sections of society, and said the people of Shahkot had rejected the "issueless and vision-less opposition."
He slammed the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership for allegedly not doing any development in Shahkot during their rule and promised to uplift the constituency especially in the areas of education, health and other basic amenities.
