Chandigarh, Sep 22 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said the state government has now decided to summon a session of the Assembly on September 27 to discuss various issues pertaining to the state.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said the government will approach the Supreme Court against the arbitrary and anti-democratic decision of the Governor to cancel the permission of holding a special session of the Vidhan Sabha after giving permission for it.
He said it is an unfortunate move and they will move to the apex court against this irrational decision.
Mann asserted that this decision will be challenged in the Supreme Court for safeguarding the democratic rights of the people and federal rights of the states.
Training his guns against the Punjab Congress for supporting 'Operation Lotus' of the BJP, the Chief Minister said it is ironic that the Congress, which is the biggest victim of this undemocratic operation, is standing by the side of the saffron party.
He said the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP were hand in glove for this sinister move aimed at toppling the democratically elected government of Punjab.
Mann unequivocally said that the Congress and the BJP have marginalized regional parties, adding that now they want that power should remain confined between them only.
However, the Chief Minister said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has taken birth from an anti-corruption crusade and the party under the leadership of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is gaining momentum with every passing day.
He categorically said they will oppose every anti-democratic move and will not be threatened by pressure tactics.
Mann envisioned that Punjab will send a message to the entire country that in democracy people and not any individual is supreme.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court
Earlier, four persons, including two Afghanistan nationals, were arrested by the NCB. The fifth accused Shamim Ahmad was arrested from from Laxmi Nagar. A person called Shahid controlled the hawala racket of Dubai. Seeing that Shamim had good links with middlemen working in Dubai, Shahid included him in his gang.
Conceding the proposal of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to introduce home delivery of atta under National Food Security Act (NFSA), the entire state has been divided into eight zones and the service will commence in one zone in the first phase, in two zones in the second phase, and in the remaining five zones in the last and third phase.
A decision to this effect was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the posts belong to Group A, B and C. Major departments include Home Affairs, School Education, Health, Power and Technical Education.
Besides Mittal, the Chancellor of Lovely Professional University (LPU), others who were elected in the recently concluded biennial election from Punjab are businessman Sanjeev Arora and AAP Punjab co in-charge Raghav Chadha.
In April, 1.15 kg of cocaine concealed in pills ingested by a passenger was seized at Hyderabad, and in another case one kg of cocaine was seized at Bengaluru in August 2021. Apart from Mumbai and Hyderabad, seizures of cocaine have also been affected at other airports also.
