Capt Amarinder says not interfered with court matter

A day after senior advocate accused Punjab Chief Minister of committing contempt of court by issuing warning to the state police officials for approaching courts, Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday clarified that he had not “interfered in any way in the matter before the court”, but only given directions to his police officers in the state’s interest.

“It is my job to ensure discipline in the force, and it will be maintained at all costs,” said Capt Amarinder.

Amicus curie in the Punjab drugs case, Anupam Gupta, had told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the Chief Minister was in contempt of court for having called a disciplinary meeting of all high ranking officers with regards to the legal issue before the court.

“Anyone questioning the hierarchy is actually questioning the system….I had not interfered in any way in the matter before the court, but, only given directions to his police officers in the interest of the state,” he said.

Chief Minister said: “This is my instruction to the officers. My duty is to ensure that discipline is maintained. Whether they go to the High Court or not is their business, but within service whether it’s like Para Military or Army, there is a hierarchal system. You have to listen to the man at the top whosoever is head, is your boss, and that is how it should be. Anybody questioning that is breaking the system.”

In a strong voice, Capt Amarinder maintained that the Chief Minister’s Office “will not tolerate indiscipline in the force”.

The matter pertains to the state DGP (Human Resource Development) Sidhharth Chattopadhyaya’s allegations against the state police chief Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta besides Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh that they were “deeply connected with the infamous drug racket of dismissed ASI Inderjit Singh”.

In response to another question, Capt Amarinder said that the only way to bring Harpreet Singh Sidhu to the state to head the Special Task Force (STF) against drugs was to get him into the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) since he was then on central deputation, where he was then yet to complete his tenure.

“Now that his pending tenure with the Central Government has ended, he has been placed under the DGP,” said Capt Amarinder.

Notably, earlier, Capt Amarinder had declared that Sidhu-led STF was given a free hand to deal with the drug menace in the state.

GOVT MULLING CHINESE LANGUAGE STUDY IN SCHOOLS

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh also maintained that the State Government was considering introducing Chinese as an optional language selectively in some schools.

“The language would have an extremely important role to play, globally, in the future,” he said.

Several shops in Doaba region were even now teaching Italian and other foreign languages, he noted, underlining the need to impart foreign language training to students to enable them to compete effectively in the global market.