The simmer discontentment within the Congress party seems to be on the rise as more party legislators are coming in support of Shutrana MLA Nirmal Singh who had virtually declared a war against his own Government.
Alarmed over the developments, the State party leadership has decided to take up the matter with the Chief Minister in the coming days.
“The Chief Minister is aware of all the developments, and the issue raised by the MLA is not something which has happened for the first time. He is well aware of the legislators’ grievances against the bureaucracy and every effort would be made to resolve it once and for all,” a senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, told The Pioneer.
The Congress leader maintained that as the Chief Minister has now returned home from his Europe tour, the matter would be resolved at the earliest.
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar had already assured the discontented MLAs that their issue would be raised and resolved. He had also declared that he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister.
On the other hand, another party MLA Hardyal Singh Kamboj on Wednesday backed Nirmal Singh while describing him as honest and a good man.
Declaring that he would support Nirmal Singh in his fight against the bureaucracy, Kamboj said that he would always continue to raise his voice against the “afsarshahi”.
At the same time, Kamboj maintained that Normal Singh’s demands had been fulfilled and the process has been initiated.
Shutrana MLA, a couple of days ago, had alleged no development was taking place in his constituency and not even a single brick was laid there.
He listed out Dana Mandi (grain market), Trauma Center, Polytechnic College, park and Judicial Court complex as the main demands of his constituency. Mincing no words, Nirmal Singh had alleged that neither the State Government gave any hearing to his concerns, nor did the Chief Minister meet him. He went on to add that the Government was being run by the Chief Minister’s special principal secretary Suresh Kumar and not by Capt Amarinder.
Maintaining that he was an honest man and has no money, Shutrana MLA said that all he wanted that the development works should start in his constituency, otherwise he would stage a sit-in outside the CM house from January 1.
At the same time, he made it clear that he did not care about the party action, not he care about the party tickets.
Nirmal Singh is the fourth Congress MLA to have raised a voice against the State Government and the bureaucracy for allegedly neglecting elected representatives.
Only a week ago, Congress MLAs Hardyal Singh Kamboj (Rajpura), Rajinder Singh (Samana) and Madan Lal Jalalapur (Ghanaur) had publicly spoken against the district police department and district officials at a meeting in Patiala during grievance redressal meeting.
These MLAs, including Nirmal Singh, had heated arguments over various matters, including phone recordings and alleged phone tapping by officials of the administration during the meeting on November 20. Rajinder Singh had accused a police official of tapping his phone calls.
Notably, the constituencies of all the four legislators are part of the Patiala parliamentary seat from where the Chief Minister’s wife Preneet Kaur is the Lok Sabha MP.
Kamboj added that party chief Jakhar had assured them that the issue would be raised and resolved. “If bureaucracy’s supremacy do not end, we would again raise our voices again,” he said while declaring that the “four MLAs” are united and standing with each other.
Party’s MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh maintained that the party should give patient hearing to these MLAs and resolve their issues if any.