CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has assured of full protection by his government for the Badals in view of the enhanced threat perception to their lives. He made the assurance, in response to a question, that he was cognizant of recent reports of increased threat perception to the lives of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, and would ensure that full security is provided to the father-son duo.
Sources in the state police said that both of them are in Z-plus category security cover and from time to time their security is reviewed and now once again theirty review will be carried out as and when security review is done for the VVIPs inputs from all intelligences agencies are taken into account.
The Shamli Police in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday arrested three people who have been identified as Karam Singh (30) of Shamli, Gurjant alias Zinta (23) of Saharanpur and Amrit (24) of Haryana. They had planned to attack Badal during a SAD rally in Patiala on October 7 and recovered the two service rifles allegedly robbed from two policemen on September 2.
But the plan was changed as these rifles could not be sent to Punjab from UP and later the rifles and ammunition were recovered from a gurdwara. These three accused are associated with the Khalistan Liberation Front.
Interestingly last month Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has struck down a proposal of the Punjab Police to purchase armoured luxury Toyota Land Cruisers for both Badals as their present vehicles had fulfilled their years in service.
Meanwhile in a reply to another question Amarinder said that farmers who were burning paddy stubble in the fields in contravention of the prescribed guidelines of the National Green Tribunal, and his government was bound to go by the law, even though he was sympathetic to the problem of the farmers. To a query regarding the separate memorandums submitted by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to the Punjab Governor in support of the demands of the agitating teachers, hesaid that the Government was fully seized of the matter and was trying its best to resolve the issue.
He said that services of nearly 40,000 employees, including teachers, needed to be regularised, which may take some time in view of the fiscal crunch faced by his government. Meanwhile, the Government has already given an option to the teachers to continue in the existing pay scale or join at the basic pay of 15,300 for three years before being regularized, said Amarinder.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the pay scale offered by the State Government was higher than the current central pay scale of 13,900. It was now upto the teachers to take an appropriate call, he added.