Cong moots no-confidence motion against Speaker

Party MLAs Kuljit Nagra and Jagmohan Kang added that they will then tell Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that it is a black day for democracy when a no-confidence motion is moved against a Speaker. “Both the speaker and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal denied on the floor of the house that they had sent policemen to raid our office. Atwal later claimed he had ordered the raid. He has been taking U-turns to suit the government’s demands,” Nagra said. Jakhar,on the other hand,claimed that commandant Sukhwant Singh Gill has admitted to raiding the Congress office on the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.

The Opposition,meanwhile,held a mock Assembly on Tuesday with Congress MLAs slamming the government for imposing property tax. Hoshiarpur MLA Sunder Sham Arora gave out figures to claim it will affect the state’s urban population. “Even an empty plot will attract 25 per cent of the tax that is levied on constructed property,” he added. MLA Parminder Singh Pinky also described it as unjust and asked people to boycott it.

Jakhar,however,said the Congress does not want to boycott the budget but has been forced to expose the government. “We are holding the mock assembly to expose the government’s authoritarian attitude. I have apologised to the watch and ward staff,who bore the brunt of whatever happened within the Assembly,and I have invited them for tea,which they have graciously accepted. As for the policemen who raided our office,they had no authority to do so and were running away like thieves,” he added.

Govt settling scores: Sikki

Khadoor Sahib MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki on Tuesday accused the Akali-BJP government of trying to implicate and victimise Congress workers by using the violence during the farmers’ agitation in Tarn Taran and Amritsar. Sikki said in the aftermath of the unfortunate death of an ASI at Tarn Taran,the Kisan Sangarsh Samiti had been assured by the SSP Tarn Taran that they (the farmers) had no role in the death of the ASI and the case was being filed soon after the investigation. Later it turned out that the police first filed the case under section 304 of the IPC and then converted it into 302 and included about 25 to 35 unidentified people in the FIR. He said,now the police,in the name of unidentified persons included in the FIR was implicating and harassing the Congress workers to settle political scores with them.