Captain Amarinder Singh goes around an exhibition during the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Kisan Vikas Chamber in Mohali on Tuesday. (Express photo by Jasbir Malhi)
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that his government did not agree with the union government’s decision of merging the cadre of UT Police with DANIPS cadre. The CM said that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Thursday and request him to cancel the notification. “We shall not endorse this step of the union government. During the meeting I shall take up the issue strongly with the PM,” the Captain said.
The CM was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function organised to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Kisan Vikas Chamber in Mohali. The CM said that his government completed only 18 months in the office. He added that his government would fulfil all the promises he made during the election campaign.
Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Partap Bajwa have both written separate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for bringing various posts of Chandigarh Administration, including DSP in DANIPS cadre. Sidhu said these posts would be filled up by way of procedure prescribed under the said notification by the Government of India and not by Punjab and Haryana.
In their separate letters, both Sidhu and Bajwa have stated that the September 25 notification to this effect shook the very foundation and purpose of the Punjab Reorganization Act and the Rajiv Longowal Accord. Sidhu said as per the Reorganization Act, all assets and liabilities were to be bifurcated between the state of Punjab and Haryana in the ratio of 60:40. This ratio has been consistently followed from the appointed date for over a period of 50 years, even for the purpose of allocating officers for the Union Territory of Chandigarh from the states of Punjab and Haryana.
He has stated that as a Punjabi and a minister holding the mandate of the people, he urges the Home Minister to reconsider the notification. “By way of said notification, the legitimate and existing binding convention of 60:40 has been unjustifiably taken away from the people of Punjab. There is genuine apprehension amongst the Punjabis that by enacting more notifications like the one, all the cadres would be taken away from the Punjabi Officers and as such, their legitimate expectations would be frustrated.”
Bajwa in his letter stated that law and order is a state subject and as such the core issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab should have been decided first of all before notifying these new police rules. A consequence of these new police rules getting notified and hence, implemented, is that Chandigarh gets a perpetual status of a Union Territory. This clearly means that Chandigarh would never be given to Punjab as its capital and would continue to be a Union Territory for all times to come.