ROW OVER STATELEVEL FUNCTION IN ATTARIWALA’S MEMORY

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh’s Amritsar visit on Saturday stirred a controversy after he did not get on stage of the state-level function to commemorate the 172nd martyrdom day of Sikh general Sham Singh Attariwala at his native Attari village.

The district administration had all the arrangements in place. A stage was set up with chairs for CM, minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Congress MLAs besides a banner reading it was a state-level function. Government advertisements in newspapers too said the CM will preside over the statelevel function at Attari.

The CM’s media adviser Raveen Thukral later tweeted that the CM was not supposed to attend or address any function there and he went to the martyr’s village only to pay his respects at his tomb.

“The CM decided to visit the village after attending the official function at India Gate only to pay his respects at Attariwala’s tomb. There was only one state-level event which the CM attended and it was specified in government advertisements in newspaper. The event organised by the General Sham Singh Attariwala Trust was not in the CM’s itinerary,” Thukral said.

In the evening, the government also issued a statement claiming that the state-level function was held at the memorial (India Gate) and not in the Sikh general’s native village.

However, invites by the department of information and public relations department too had termed the village function as a state-level event.