With the one-day Punjab Assembly session slated for Friday, the Opposition parties have hit out at the ruling Congress for the short duration of the session and decided to corner the government on issues surrounding the recent hooch tragedy, prevailing agrarian crisis and deteriorating law and order situation.
Extension sought
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday met Assembly Speaker Rana K.P. Singh and demanded that the session be conducted for at least 15 days. “If the Assembly session could be convened for a day amid corona guidelines, why could it not be extended for 15 days,” asked Harpal Singh Cheema, AAP MLA and Leader of the Opposition.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislative members meanwhile have asked for a special discussion on the Punjab government’s alleged failure to take action against distilleries whose collusion with the ‘liquor mafia’ resulted in the death of over a hundred people in the hooch tragedy.
Meanwhile, as the number of COVID-19 positive MLAs and Ministers rose to 29, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh appealed to all legislators who had come in contact with them to avoid attending the one-day Assembly session.
Endangering lives
Capt. Amarinder said protests by AAP were endangering the lives of people, pointing to the party’s ‘dharnas’ in various parts of the State since August 20. “With anything between 25 to 250 people present at each of these gatherings, they had become tinder boxes for sparking further spread of the pandemic,” he said, urging the party to call off the protests.
The Chief Minister pointed out that of the eight AAP leaders, including MLAs who had spearheaded these ‘dharnas’ so far, two had already tested positive and each of them had come in contact with scores of other people till now.
In terms of MLAs, 4 from AAP were COVID-19 positive, he added.