Punjab CM stops unscheduled, interacts with auto-rickshaw drivers
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Nov, 2021 12:19 PM
Ludhiana, Nov 22 (IANS) Auto-rickshaw drivers in Punjab's industrial town Ludhiana on Monday received an unusual guest in the form of Chief Minister Charanjit Channi, who halted unscheduled on his way to the grain market to listen to their problems.
Taken by surprise, the drivers were elated as for the first time in the recent past any Chief Minister had came to them that too for listening their grievances in a 'chaupal' (meeting).
The Chief Minister, accompanying President of Punjab Congress, Navjot Sidhu, sat on a wooden bench amongst the auto rickshaw owners and interacted with them.
In his impeccable style, Chief Minister Channi relished the tea offered by them by dipping a 'mathi' in glass of tea.
During the interaction, the Chief Minister assured them to consider their genuine demands sympathetically. Due to huge rush of the auto rickshaw drivers, the Chief Minister then stood on the stool and addressed the gathering.
Striking an emotional chord, Channi said, during his initial days, he himself had driven an auto-rickshaw. Winning the hearts of the auto-rickshaw drivers, he announced that new registration certificates will be issued soon to them for preventing their harassment.
Channi also announced that all challans which are pending will be waived off. He asked the auto-rickshaw drivers to follow traffic rules and work honestly.
He also acceded to the demand of auto-rickshaw owners to draw a yellow line exclusively for plying of the auto-rickshaws.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly discriminating against teachers and forcing them to come to the streets, and asked state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla not to behave in an 'arrogant' and 'dictatorial' manner and resolve the grievances of government school teachers immediately.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
