SAD-BJP delegation urges Governor to remove drug accused Sukhpal Khaira as Leader of Opposition expeditiously

Chandigarh, November 22 – A high level SAD-BJP delegation led by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal today met Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore and submitted a memorandum demanding the immediate removal of AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira from the post of leader of opposition for sullying the august chair after being named as an accused in a trans-border drug case with Pakistani links.

The SAD-BJP delegation including senior SAD leaders S S Dhindsa and B S Bhundur besides Som Parkash from the BJP also urged the Governor to direct the Congress government to immediately implement the Rs 90,000 crore loan waiver as promised by it, while pointing out that no farmer had been given a single penny despite numerous notifications. It said farm suicides were on the rise due to this and farmer accounts had been declared as NPA (non performing assets) making them ineligible to take future loans. The delegation also asserted that the Congress government had deliberately not hiked the State Assured Price (SAP) of sugarcane because its ministers were sugar barons. It said this was a clear case of conflict of interest. It requested the Governor to direct the government to hike the price to at least Rs 350 per quintal, saying even Haryana was paying Rs 330 per quintal against Rs 300 per quintal SAP in Punjab.

It also urged the Governor to direct the government to take action against sand mining mafia being run by Congress legislators in Punjab, saying the recent beating up of a general manager of the mining department in a police station when he tried to check illegal mining was a good example of the present state of affairs in Punjab. It also requested the Governor to ensure 60:40 ratio of officers between Punjab and Haryana in UT administration besides enforcing Punjabi as the official language of the UT.

Giving details of the case against AAP leader Sukhpal Khaira, the SAD President briefed the Governor that Khaira had been summoned as an accused in a drugs case with anti-national antecedents due to seizure of Pak weapons and SIMs by a Fazilka court. He said following this the AAP leader approached the high court to get this order set aside but the high court not only upheld it, but also asserted that no political vendetta had been done against him. Mr Badal said the Governor should act expeditiously in this matter as this was an extraordinary case in which the leader of opposition had been made an accused after submission of overwhelming evidence against him.

Mr Badal also submitted that it appeared that the Congress government was getting ready to play a friendly game with Khaira. He said despite a court order directing the government to file a challan in the case this had not been done since nearly one month. It was also brought to the notice of the Governor that Khaira’s personal security officer, who had been named as an abettor in the case for making his phone available to the AAP leader to talk to the main accused, had been transferred to the security detail of his brother in law Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh who was heading a commission probing incidents of sacrilege. The delegation requested the Governor to direct the State government to present the supplementary challan in the case as well as ask the government to explain why Joga Singh had been shifted to Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh’s security detail.

The delegation included the senior leadership of the SAD-BJP combine including mp P S Chandumajra, Ajit Singh Kohar, Charanjit Singh Atwal, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Bikram Singh Majithia, Bibi Jagir Kaur, P S Dhindsa, S S Rakhra,Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Hira Singh Gabria, Sohan Singh Thandal, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, N K Sharma, M S Sirsa, Arun Narang and Vineet Joshi.