Punjab Congress MLAs stage walkout from Assembly, demand justice for army officer
Chandigarh: Congress legislators, wearing black armbands, on Friday interrupted the address of Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on the first day of the Assembly Budget session on Friday, and walked out after shouting slogans against the AAP government.
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa was on his feet and started speaking as the Governor was addressing the House.
Governor Kataria paused as Bajwa started speaking with the microphone switched off.
However, the Governor resumed his speech despite Congress legislators getting up from their seats.
Bajwa raised the issues of the assault on a Colonel and his son in Patiala, besides the “forcible” eviction of farmers protesting for over a year at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders along Haryana.
Later, the Congress members staged a walkout from the Assembly.
Congress leaders have voiced strong criticism of the state’s Bhagwant Mann government, accusing it of deceiving the farmers, and emphasising that if farmers wish to hold an agitation, they should be allowed to do so without interference.
On the army officer assault case, the Congress leader said all erring Punjab Police officials should be arrested and dismissed from service.
“Recently, (AAP national convener) Arvind Kejriwal was in Punjab, but neither he nor Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has uttered a word about the incident,” he said.
A day earlier, the family of the serving colonel, who accused 12 police officials of assaulting him and his son over a parking dispute, met the Governor here and sought a CBI probe into the incident. The family rejected the probe by an executive magistrate ordered by the Punjab government.
The government has appointed IAS officer Paramvir Singh, who is the Municipal Commissioner of Patiala, as an inquiry officer to probe the incident after the family expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing probe. The family had alleged that when they were standing outside the car and having food, police officials reached the spot and asked the Colonel to remove his vehicle as they had to park theirs.