CHANDIGARH: In the continuing tussle with Governor Banwarilal Purohit, the Mann-led AAP government has decided to hold a one-day assembly session on Sept 27. The government will also approach the Supreme Court against the “arbitrary and anti-democratic decision of the Governor” for cancelling the one-day session scheduled for Thursday.
The state cabinet in its meeting at the Chief Minister’s Office on Thursday approved a recommendation to the Governor for the summoning of the third session of the 16th Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Sept 27.
State Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the Governor’s action indicated that the BJP was trying to crush the Constitution and institutions. He asserted AAP would not bend before the BJP as the Congress did. On Sept 27, the government would take up the power supply situation and stubble burning, Cheema said.
AAP MLAs on Thursday held a peace march from the Assembly building to the Governor’s house to protest Purohit’s decision. Holding banners that said, ‘Killer of Democracy’ and ‘Congress-BJP killing democracy’, ‘Stop Operation Lotus’, AAP MLAs and workers raised slogans against the Opposition.
They alleged that the opposition was trying to halt the progress of the state government by working clandestinely against the ruling AAP in Punjab.
The MLAs dubbed the Governor’s decision as a “mockery of democracy.” The ‘peace march’ was stopped by the police near the Assembly building. BJP workers held a counter-protest and marched towards the CM’s official residence. The police stopped them on the way in Sector 37. The police used water cannons and took the protestors in preventive custody.
Opposition SAD has sought a probe by the Supreme Court or the High Court into AAP charges on purchase of its MLAs. SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the inquiry should look into whether any BJP leader or any middleman offered Rs 25 crore each to AAP legislators to switch sides as claimed by ministers Harpal Cheema and Aman Arora.
Asserting that the Governor was right in withdrawing permission for a special session to enact a political drama on the lines of the one that took place in Delhi earlier, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said, “Punjab today is at a crossroads. What we are witnessing today is misgovernance propped up by paid advertisements at taxpayers’ cost.”
AAP will also approach Supreme Court
The government will also approach the Supreme Court against the “arbitrary and anti-democratic decision of the Governor” for cancelling the one-day session scheduled for Thursday.