Special Assembly session legal; central team won't be allowed to survey SYL land: Punjab govt

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 14

Taking the charges by the Punjab Governor (on the special sitting of the Vidhan Sabha) and the Opposition parties (on the SYL issue) against them head on, the Punjab government has not only declared that the session on October 20-21 is legal and will be held, but also announced that no central team will be allowed to survey the land acquired for construction of SYL.

Speaking for the government, after the Cabinet meeting held on Saturday afternoon, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema and Governance Reforms minister Aman Arora have said that though no formal discussion on the assembly session to be held next week took place in the meeting, the Council of ministers led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has approved bills on amendments to Goods and Services Tax. The meeting will be held as scheduled, and the special sitting of the Budget session is completely legal, they said.

“The Governor should not have declared the session illegal, as important bills are to be tabled in the two-day sitting. These Bills are for the good of Punjab and for the country. The Governor should change his legal advisors,” said Harpal Cheema. He added that in all Opposition- ruled states, the Centre was posting such Governors and L-Gs who would not allow the democratically elected governments to work. It is true in West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, he said.

Adding to this, Aman Arora said though they had not received any letter from the Governor, stating that the bills passed in the previous sitting of the Vidhan Sabha on June 19-20, were accepted or rejected, the state government hoped the Bills to be tabled now and the previous ones would get his assent.

Talking about the possibility of central teams visiting Punjab on November 1, to survey the land for the SYL canal, Arora said no survey would be allowed by the AAP government in the state. “Though we have not received any intimation, we will oppose the team. Since a claim to this effect has been made by the Shiromani Akali Dal, maybe they, along with the BJP in Punjab are trying to create trouble on November 1, in order to run away from the debate on the Punjab issues proposed by CM Mann. They fear getting exposed in the debate for how they have wronged Punjab and sold its interests for personal gains,” he said.