Moving out of the four walls of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Congress legislative Party (ClP) has decided to gherao Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his residence — something that would happen for the first time in the recent past.
The ClP, setting a week’s deadline, is demanding withdrawal of property tax, besides clearing pending cases of Rs186 crore payment to sugarcane farmers and pensions and shagun cases.
“We want the State Government to act on these three issues in a week’s time, in case they failed, we would gherao Chief Minister’s residence on June 23. The gherao would be peaceful and symbolic,” said ClP leader Sunil Jakhar.
The decision was taken during the ClP meeting at Punjab Bhawan on Monday ahead the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Budget Session, scheduled to start from July 5. Of the 43 Congress MlAs, 30 attended the meeting.
The ClP’s decision is being interpreted as its attempt to take over the role of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
By and large, the ClP’s role and function is limited to the Assembly, and mainly when the House is in session. On the other hand, it’s the Pradesh Congress Committee which carry out demonstrations, hold protests outside the House raising various issues among the people and make them aware.
Defending his decision, Jakhar said that ClP is a part of the PPCC. “It is very much the party of PPCC….We would ask the State party chief Partap Singh Bajwa to join us,” he added.
This is not for the first time the issue of ClP going past its power has come forth. In the past too, the two — ClP leader Jakhar and the PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa — had come face-to-face.
As Jakhar own allegiance to Bajwa’s bête noire Capt Amarinder Singh, the two senior Congress leaders don’t enjoy good relationship. And the ClP’s move is enough to indicate what was in store for Bajwa in future.
“We just want to raise these issues among the people before raising these in the assembly so that they should know the reality,” said Jakhar.
AN ATTEMPT TO WIN lOST VOTE BANK
The ClP’s decision to raise divergent issues is being interpreted as the party’s attempt to win these sections back. lok Sabha polls has witnessed the worst ever performance by the Congress party in the State, winning just three seats. The party has realised that it has lost its stronghold on the Dalit vote bank, farming community, among others. By raising these issues, it is trying to win confidence of voters including farmers, traders, elderly, backward class members, among others.
DHARNA IF DEMANDS NOT MET
“SAD-BJP Government should immediately arrange to make payment to the farmers for their sugarcane crop, which had already been delayed a lot which is amounting Rs 186 crore,” said Jakhar. He also asked Badal to withdraw property tax in the state which, he said, had been a financial burden on people. “Badal had promised to withdraw the property tax and now it is time for him to walk the talk,” said Jakhar. The ClP leader also asked the state government to clear all pendency pertaining to the various social welfare schemes announced by the SAD-BJP alliance before coming to power. “There is a huge backlog of various social welfare schemes pending in Punjab, which include Shagun and widow and old-age pension schemes. The beneficiaries of these schemes are Dalits and weaker sections. The government must not deprive these sections of their lawful right,” said Jakhar. He said if the Akali government failed to fulfil these demands in a week, the Congress would be forced to hold the protest demonstration outside Badal's residence on June 23.
EXTEND BUDGET SESSION
Jakhar also impressed upon the state government to increase the duration of the budget session scheduled from July 5. “According to the Constitution, the Vidhan Sabha must meet and discuss important issues pertaining to the people of the state for at least 40 days a year. However, most of the time the duration of the sessions is not beyond 20 to 22 days. Keeping in view the interest of the residents, the state government should increase the number of days of the budget session,” said Jakhar.