Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 24
Dissident leaders of the Punjab Congress, including two ministers Sukhjinder Randhawa and Charanjit Channi, went into a huddle at the residence of Jalandhar Cant MLA Pargat Singh here to discuss future course of action as response of the party high command is awaited.
Around the same time, the Punjab Women Commission Chairperson said she had been intimated that the state government was replying to her time-bound notice regarding the status of a two-and-a-half-year old case of alleged harassment of a woman IAS officer by Channi.
The deadline of the notice sent to the Chief Secretary ended today. The commission Chairperson had threatened to sit on a dharna if the state government failed to reply to the notice. She said she had received a call from the Chief Minister, saying that the state government was replying to the commission’s notice. “I am expecting the reply today or by tomorrow,” she said.
The dissident leaders have already objected to the commission reopening an old case to arm-twist Channi, as he is among the main faces who have been questioning their own government on delay.
At the meeting, the dissident leaders discussed keeping up the pressure on the government to act quickly in the cases of sacrilege and police firing, said sources.
After the meeting, Pargat Singh said he totally agreed with Amargarh MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman, who has been stating that the party cannot come back to power as it failed to live up to the expectations of the people. Dhiman had stated that someone like Navjot Singh Sidhu should lead the way. Pargat Singh said he had already stated that the Chief Minister should get a survey done to check that his popularity graph had fallen drastically since 2017.
Meet people’s expectations: MLA