The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed key Bills, besides passing a resolution demanding the release of the Rural Development Fund (RDF) from the Centre, even as the Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the House.
Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress) sought to know the objective of a special session, asking what the purpose was if there was no Question Hour or Zero Hour. Taking a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mr. Bajwa said that the government convened a session around nine months ago after they alleged “Operation Lotus”, but so far, no action taken report had been given in that regard. Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that a First Information Report had been registered in the matter and an investigation was under way.
Last year, the AAP alleged that attempts were being made to topple the Punjab government by offering bribes to its legislators by ‘BJP agents’.
Staging the walkout, the Congress MLAs raised slogans against the government, pointing out that there was no Question Hour or Zero Hour in the special session.
CM-Governor tussle
Later, the House passed some key Bills, including Punjab University Laws (Amendment) Bill 2023 thereby vesting the powers of Chancellors of State Universities with the Chief Minister. The AAP government’s move comes amid an ongoing tussle between Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Governor Banwarilal Purohit on several issues, including a confrontation on selection of Vice-Chancellor by the government.
Mr. Mann said that rather than securing the State’s interests, the Governor was often seen on the other side. Citing the issue of Panjab University, he said that instead of safeguarding the interests of Punjab and Punjabis, the Governor had been taking the stance in favour of Haryana to allow its entry into the senate of the university. Mr. Mann said that this was a very strange situation as the Governor, just to “appease his political masters sitting in Delhi”, was doing all these gimmicks.
The Assembly also passed the Sikh Gurudwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023. Mr. Mann said that the Bill aimed at freeing the undue control of a particular family over the rights to telecast sacred Gurbani (sacred hymn). He said that it was a paradoxical situation that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee under the influence of a family, that controlled its affairs, had given intellectual property rights of telecasting the Gurbani to a channel owned by them. Notably, the broadcast rights are granted by the SGPC, which is currently with the G-Next Media (PTC Channel), which is owned by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
DGP posting
The Assembly also passed The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to bring about an independent mechanism for the selection and appointment of suitable persons to the post of the Director General of Police (Head of Police Force). Notably, as per the current practice the States in the country send the name of all eligible officers to the Union Public Service Commission for selecting the State police head. The UPSC suggests names of three officers, from which the State government chooses one for the post.
A resolution was also passed by the Assembly against the non-release of RDF worth more than ₹3,622 crore by the Centre. The Chief Minister said that everyone knew that the Centre was targeting the non-BJP governments in the country and not allowing them to work smoothly. He said that if this fund was not released then the State government would take up the matter in the Supreme Court of India for its early resolution.
The SAD supported the resolution against the Centre .The BJP MLAs had boycotted the two-day special session.
