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Punjab session set to be stormy

CHANDIGARH: Though the first day of the Punjab Assembly’s winter session was adjourned on Monday after the customary obituary references, aggressive posturing by the leaders of different political parties outside the House indicated that the upcoming proceedings in the House would be marked by emotive and stormy exchanges.

Through a unanimous resolution, which was preceded by a series of observations by legislators led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the House paid rich tributes to the departed leaders including victims of the recent train accident near Moga, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, senior BJP leader Sahib Singh Verma, Lala Lajpat Rai and judicial luminaries, Justice S. S. Sandhawalia and Justice R. S. Pathak.

However, talking to reporters informally in the lobby of the Assembly, the leader of the Opposition, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who is also the president of the Punjab unit of the Congress, described Mr. Badal’s recent claims on development and availability of funds as a “bundle of lies”.

She challenged the ruling Akali-BJP alliance to follow the positive traditions set by the previous Congress Government to bring out a “White Paper” on the State’s financial health.

Ms Bhattal said the Congress would highlight the issue of political vendetta let loose by the ruling alliance against its rivals. She pointed towards major development parameters in which the State had slipped down since the Badal government took charge.

In his reaction, Mr. Badal sought to dismiss the charges as “negative thinking” and said that since February when the present alliance took charge, it had succeeded in restoring the petroleum refinery project at Bathinda and secured the international airport at Mohali, which on completion would speed up economic growth of the State.

He claimed the Government was on the way to fulfilling all its poll promises.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh discounted all talk about the State being cash-strapped.

He claimed that the collections from Excise and VAT had touched an all-time high, though stamp duty from land sales had recorded a decrease.

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