BJP ups ante, serves 15-day ultimatum on Punjab's AAP govt to improve law & order

Bathinda/Amritsar, March 12

Upping the ante against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the Punjab BJP on Sunday served a 15-day ultimatum on the state government to improve law and order in the state. It also sought registration of an FIR against pro-Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh regarding the Ajnala police station incident.

He said the present dispensation in Punjab had failed to maintain law and order in the state.

Addressing reporters, state BJP vice-president and former minister Raj Kumar Verka, accompanied by local leaders, said the party would launch an agitation, which would include ‘gherao’ of the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and AAP MLAs, should the government fail to take action against Amritpal Singh within the given time-frame.

“Mann and Kejriwal have a direct nexus with Amritpal Singh and anti-social elements,” alleged Verka.

The BJP would not let the law and order situation deteriorate and allow the state to be overwhelmed by the drug menace and anti-national sentiments, he said.

With regard to the liquor policy, the BJP made it known that it was keeping a close watch on the issue. “The state’s excise policy has imprint of the controversial Delhi’s policy,” he said.

He expressed concern at the rise in the incidents of drug abuse and related crimes in the state, and the failure of AAP to fulfil its electoral promises, including a grant of Rs 1,000 per month to women.

Meanwhile, in Amritsar BJP leaders Manoranjan Kalia and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi today said the Central Government was closely watching the law and order situation in the state.

Addressing mediapersons here on Sunday, they said CM Bhagwant Singh Mann was holding the home portfolio yet no case had been registered against pro-Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh and his supporters who had stormed the police station at Ajnala and assaulted police officials on Febraury 24. They said gangs of criminals had been striking at will since the government came to power in the state.

They slammed Amritpal for taking a ‘saroop’ of the Guru Granth Sahib to the protest site.

On the chances of the imposition of President rule in the state, they said people would deliver the final result in the next election. They said the Central Government cooperated with the AAP government by dispatching companies of paramilitary forces. They said deterioration in the law and order could be noticed from the spike in robberies, dacoities at bank branches and petrol pumps.