Chandigarh, Oct 13 (IANS) Slamming the Centre for amending Section 139 of the BSF Act to give the border and guarding force wider jurisdiction and terming it tantamount to an attack on federalism, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa on Wednesday asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to withdraw the decision.
Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) described the decision as Central rule in the state through the back door.
In a statement, Randhawa, who also holds the Home portfolio, said "this illogical decision was absolutely against the spirit of the raising the border guarding forces, which were required to focus on the international border and act as the first line of defence".
He said policing in the hinterland is not the role of a border guarding force, rather it would weaken the capacity of the Border Security Force (BSF) in discharging its primary duty of guarding the international border.
He said that he would personally call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister to resolve this issue.
Meanwhile, the SAD described the move to hand over almost half of the state to the BSF as "the imposition of the President's rule through the back door in nearly half of Punjab".
"This virtually turns the state into a de facto Union territory. This devious attempt to place the state directly under the Central rule must and will be opposed," senior Akali leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement.
He said this was at the same time, "a frontal assault on the federal principle through highly questionable misuse of constitutional provisions".
Cheema said it was shocking the BSF has been given sweeping powers divesting the state police of even the normal policing duties.
"As per the Constitution, only the state government can call out the Central forces to aid and assist the state administration. The Centre cannot thrust these forces on the state without a formal request from the state government," he said.
The Akali leader also called upon Chief Minister Charanjit Channi to come clean on the state government's stand on the sensitive issue.
The non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine has impacted the Indians, especially students travelling to the UK. This issue was flagged during the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday in Washington DC.
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.
