Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Punjab Assembly on Monday as the Opposition parties staged a protest over the probe into the Bargari sacrilege cases and the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in this connection.
During Question Hour, the Shiromani Akali Dal members walked into the well of the House and protested against rejection of their adjournment motion on the issue. The Aam Aadmi Party members also launched an attack on the government protesting against the closure report filed by the CBI. The Akali Dal members later staged a walkout.
SAD leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa and former Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the Congress government was running away from a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the cases.
“The very fact that the Congress is running away from a discussion on the issue indicates that it does not want the truth to come out,” they said.
“We only want a discussion so that the Assembly can unanimously pass the resolution ensuring a Supreme Court-monitored probe. The Akali Dal will continue to raise this issue and do its best to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice,” they added.
AAP’s Harpal Singh Cheema, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and MLA Aman Arora said it was unfortunate that nothing had come out of the series of investigations during the past four years under the Special Investigating Team, the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission and the CBI.
“We demand a White Paper on the issue, besides a two-day special session for an open debate on it,” they told journalists.
‘Paddy date unchanged’
Responding to a question during Question Hour, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ruled out any change in the date of transplantation of paddy in the State from June 20 to June 1.
“The date had been advanced to June 13 this year only on an experimental basis and there is no proposal to permanently alter it.”
The Chief Minister said he would convene an all-party meeting to evolve a strategy to arrest the reckless use of groundwater and to change the cropping pattern to ensure water conservation.
Punjab has decided to follow the Union Public Service Commission pattern to increase the number of chances for the State Civil Services aspirants from existing four to six in the General category and to nine for the backward classes, while the SC category students will get unlimited chances, Capt. Amarinder announced.
He added that while the age limit for the SC category will be 42 years, for the General and the BC/OBC categories it would be 37 and 40 years respectively, as per the Central Commission’s rules.
