With Punjab Cabinet convening a special session of the state Assembly just before the imposition of model code of conduct for the state, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday urged the Election Commission to take immediate preventive steps to stop the Badal government from doing so.
He said the state government was trying to push through its pending ordinances, which the governor has refused to sign, through the special Assembly session called by it in violation of all norms.
Having failed to push its poll sops through the Raj Bhavan, the Badal Government is now resorting to a ‘of back-door’ special session the State Assembly, which it has deliberately scheduled for December 19, since media reports indicate the EC might announce the poll dates and impose the code of conduct on December 20, said Captain Amarinder.
Reacting to reports that the Badal government would try to pass eight Bills / Ordinances, including the one related to regularisation of 27,000 contractual employees, who have been on warpath against the government for a long time, Captain Amarinder said it was clearly a clandestine bid by the Akalis to bypass the electoral process.
He described as unfortunate the Punjab Governor's decision to allow the special Assembly session after having refused to sign the ordinances citing irregularities. Captain Amarinder further lamented the fact that the Governor had even gone ahead to allow the special session to take up certain money bills, saying the entire exercise amounted to gross electoral indiscretion.
Capt Amarinder urged the Governor to withdraw his permission and not allow this travesty of electoral norms, pointing out that legislations passed by the Badal Government in this surreptitious manner would not stand judicial scrutiny.
The Punjab Congress president compared this legally unsustainable act of the Akali government with the manner in which it had taken certain actions, including holding of a similar special session on November 16, on the SYl issue. All those actions, Captain Amarinder pointed out, had since been exposed to Supreme Court scrutiny.
The legislations that the Badal government is seeking to of pass through the special session the House to would also be open similar scrutiny, Captain Amarinder warned, adding that it was clear that the Badals were to simply trying befool the people of Punjab with these tactics in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections.