Cabinet meeting at historic town turns out a costly affair

DERABABANANAK: In the absence of the necessary arrangements for conducting a high-level cabinet meeting at Dera Baba Nanak, special arrangements visibly at higher cost had to be made for facilitation of the meeting and giving VIP treatment to the ministers who had come to attend the meeting.

The historic town, from where corridor to Kartarpur is being constructed to give Sikh pilgrims an access to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, has been in state of neglect due to its location along the border. The town lacked infrastructure to host meet of such a level. To compensate it, a huge make-shift tent was erected in middle of the grain market here.

Divided into four parts, one major portion of the tent was used for the meeting while second portion was used as VIP lounge; third one as refreshment room and arrangements for media persons were made in the last part. The food was ordered from a five star hotel in Amritsar.

More than 50 standing air conditioners (ACs) were installed in the tent while over 1,000 cops from Batala and Gurdaspur were deputed for security reasons. A special chair was also arranged for chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh in the meeting hall but the CM chose to sit among his cabinet colleagues on normal chair.

PPCC president Sunil Jakhar, cabinet ministers—Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sunder Sham Arora, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Aruna Chaudhary, OP Soni, Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi— attended the meeting.

Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujala, MLAs—Barindermit Singh Pahra and Fatehjang Singh Bajwa—were also present.