Chandigarh, December 16
The Punjab Congress will approach the Speaker to extend the Assembly session, which begins tomorrow, to “earnestly” debate the “breakdown” of the law and order situation in the state.

The party members will meet Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal tomorrow and urge him to extend the session. They are also likely to express the party’s intentions to move an adjournment motion on the law and order situation in the state.

Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar said the party was worried about the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. He said repeated instances of crime proved that the SAD had waylaid the system, which had even got out of the reach of the state police.

Jakhar said his party only wanted to debate the issue without paralysing the Assembly. “We will respond only if the Akalis deliberately obstruct us from making them accountable to the people,” he said.

The party members led by Jakhar would also urge the Speaker to conduct the House in a befitting manner and ensure that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal did not make banal or tongue-in-cheek comments that answered nothing.

While the party is set to target the Akalis on the law and order issue on the second day of the session i.e. December 18, it will highlight the open “loot” of state’s resources, including sand and gravel, by the Youth Akali Dal on the third day.

Other issues to be highlighted by the Congress included “bribing” of voters prior to the Assembly elections and a particular instance of handing out money, ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, to voters in Badal’s Lambi constituency on the eve of the elections. Around Rs 45 crore was distributed among voters of Lambi, it is alleged.

The Congress will also highlight the anti-urban bias of the SAD and the inability of the BJP to safeguard the interests of urbanites who have been saddled with property tax.

Public Relations Minister Bikram Majithia said the SAD was ready to answer everything thrown at it but said the Congress should also be ready to listen to the answers. The SAD is apparently peeved at the Congress strategy of only having its say and then refusing to listen to the SAD contention by walking out on one pretext or the other.

Majithia said the Congress also had a lot of answering to do on its part and “we will urge them to give answers to our questions”.

Sources said the SAD was likely to list the track record of the Congress government of 2002-2007 and compare the action taken by it following various incidents vis-à-vis the “decisive action” taken by the SAD-BJP government in similar cases.