Search underway for new A-G

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 31

Under pressure from various Sikh groups objecting to the appointment of Advocate General (A-G) APS Deol and Director General of Police (DGP) Iqbal Singh Sahota, the Channi-led Congress government is learnt to have made up its mind on replacing the former.

Sources in the government said search for finding his replacement had already begun. Regarding replacing DGP Sahota, who is holding the additional charge, the state government has already sent the panel of officers to the Union Public Service Commission for the appointment of a regular DGP.

CM announces ‘Mission Clean’

• CM Channi has announced ‘Mission Clean’ across the state under which action will be taken against those indulging in corruption
• Chairing a meeting of DCs and SSPs, he ordered strict action against those indulging in illegal mining, liquor and drug trade

Party sources said given the unease between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu over the appointments, the party leadership while discussing the replacement of the

A-G wants the credit to go to the party and not any individual. The top leadership wants Sidhu to get going on the party’s campaign for the Assembly elections.

The issue of appointments has been thrashed out at a series of meetings between former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the Chief Minister. With Assembly elections in mind, the Congress government wants to set the narrative right regarding its given stand on taking to task those involved in the sacrilege and subsequent police firing cases.

The A-G’s appointment has already snowballed into a political controversy as Deol was the counsel for former top cop Sumedh Singh Saini and suspended Inspector General of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal, both accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing case. The incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing in Faridkot district’s Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015 have always been considered politically sensitive.

Recently, the Alliance of Sikh Organisations, a conglomerate of various Sikh groups, had demanded withdrawal of appointments of the DGP and A-G while criticising the Chief Minister on the emotive issue.