Badal leads delegation to guv: ‘Oust Sidhu, book wife’
CHANDIGARH: Describing the train accident in Amritsar on October 19 as “a man-made tragedy of unprecedented magnitude”, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday accused the Punjab government of non-seriousness, citing CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s Israel visit.
“I find it insensitive that chief minister chose to leave the state and proceeded on an avoidable foreign trip. I would have cancelled the trip and preferred to spend time with people in grief,” Badal said while talking to mediapersons after a delegation of the SAD-BJP met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, seeking his intervention for justice to the victims and punishment to those guilty of lapses in the Amritsar train tragedy.
The former CM led a joint SAD-BJP delegation, also comprising SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP state chief Shwait Malik, to submit a memorandum to the governor. He said the tragedy could have been avoided had the local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his spouse Navjot Kaur Sidhu displayed sense of responsibility by refusing to get associated with an event that didn’t have due permissions.
He demanded sacking of Navjot Singh Sidhu from the cabinet, and registration of criminal cases against his wife Navjot Kaur, event’s organiser Saurabh Madan ‘Mithu’ and others. The land where the event was organised, Badal said, belonged to the local bodies department of which Navjot Singh Sidhu is the minister. “They misused their clout in the government for publicity, which led to the loss of 62 lives,” he said.
The former CM said the tragedy could have been averted had the climax of the function not been delayed in wait of the VIPS.
Badal said the conduct of Navjot Kaur after the tragedy was more shocking. “It was her duty to stay at the site of a tragedy which she had herself caused to happen,” said the former CM.
The delegation submitted a memorandum to the governor, demanding local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu‘s ouster from the cabinet and registration of criminal case against Sidhu, his wife Navjot Kaur and chief organiser of the event. They also demanded an inquiry by a sitting Punjab and Haryana High Court judge.
LS CANDIDATES TO BE NAMED BY DECEMBER
The core committee, which met under the chairmanship of Budhlada MLA Budh Ram, discussed the process to be followed for the selection of party candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He said the first phase of screening of candidates will be completed by November. “The final list will be declared by December-end. All candidates will be finalised by the core committee and names will be sent to the central party for approval,” he said, adding: “No candidate has been announced so far.”
The AAP won four seats in the 2014 elections, but two of them were suspended from the party a year later.
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SANDHWAN MADE STATE KISAN CELL CHIEF
A party spokesperson said Kotkpaura MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan has been appointed president of the AAP state kisan cell. Rupnagar MLA Amarjit Singh Sandoa has been made president of the transport wing whereas advocate Jastej Singh Arora is the new state president of the party’s legal cell.