Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Saturday alleged that the SAD-BJP Government was trying to push “poll sops” through ordinances and urged the Election Commission to take immediate preventive steps.
Singh said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was trying to push poll sops through ordinances, which the Punjab Governor has refused to sign, and he wants to push through now in the special Assembly session convened “in violation of all norms”.
Badal has convened a special session of the State Assembly from December 19. “Having failed to push its poll sops through the Raj Bhavan, the Badal Government is now resorting to a ‘back-door’ special session of 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,” Amarinder said.
He said there were reports that the Badal Government would try to pass at least eight bills/ordinances, including the one related to regularisation of 27,000 contractual employees, who have been agitating against the Government for some time. “It was clearly a clandestine bid by the Akalis to bypass the electoral process,” he alleged.
Amarinder described as unfortunate Punjab Governor’s decision to allow the special Assembly session after having refused to sign the ordinances citing irregularities.