Jalandhar, May 19

At a time when the state government has imposed restrictions on holding functions amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases, Congress MLA from Jalandhar West Sushil Rinku went ahead to inaugurate work on Government Senior Secondary School at Lasuri Mohalla in Basti Danishmandan here on Wednesday.

The function was held in violation of the norms laid down by the state government as there was a gathering of more than 35 persons. The event took place at 3.30 pm when all premises, including shops and commercial centres, are supposed to be closed.

During the function, it was noticed that most of the invitees did not follow the social distancing norms and a few of them did not even wear masks. Later, everyone was served coffee and pakoras. Last week, Jalandhar Central Congress MLA Rajinder Beri had inaugurated an open gym in a park, which drew flak from every quarter.

When contacted, Rinku said, “I had invited only 15 persons to the function. Since it is a mohalla, more people turned up. There was neither any public address system nor any chairs. We only got tents installed so that people and PWD officials did not have to wait for me in the sun. It took us just minutes to get some pictures clicked after which everyone left the venue.” — TNS