A day after Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi accused Governor Banwarilal Purohit of deliberately delaying the clearing of the Bill on regularisation of the services of contractual employees, Mr. Purohit on Saturday hit back, accusing the former of presenting “factually incorrect” information.
‘Will be re-examined’
In a statement Mr. Purohit said information shared by Mr. Channi on January 1 is “factually incorrect”. He said the file on the regularisation was reverted to the office of the Chief Minister with six queries, which need to be clarified by the State government.
“This file was duly received by the CMO on December 31, 2021, and the reply to the queries is awaited,” he added.
“I advise the Chief Minister to give reply to the queries raised on the file,” said Mr. Purohit. He added that once the reply comes, the Bill will be re-examined at the Governor’s Secretariat.
The Bill on the regularisation of the services of contractual employees was passed in the State Assembly on November 11, 2021. The statement said the file was sent to Raj Bhawan on December 1, 2021. “During the month of December, the Governor was on tour to various districts of the State. The Governor concluded the tour on December 21 and thereafter, on December 23, the Chief Minister came and met him at Raj Bhawan. The file was duly studied and reverted with observation-queries to the CMO on December 31, 2021,” said the statement.
‘Deliberate delay’
On Friday, Mr. Channi had blamed the Governor for deliberate and inordinate delay in clearing the file. He accused the Governor of functioning under the political pressure of the BJP in the wake of the upcoming Assembly polls.
Mr. Channi had said that if needed, he would not hesitate to stage a ‘dharna’ (sit-in) in front of the Raj Bhawan along with his Cabinet colleagues and party MLAs to safeguard the legitimate rights of the employees.
