BKU to lift road blocks, power tariff only hitch

BKU chief Ghasi Ram Nain said the union will hold a meeting at Kandela on June 19 to chalk out their strategy on the issue.

Sampat Singh, while confirming that compensation and jobs will be given to dependents of those killed in police firing, added that this will be done without examining the question of whether the police firing was justified or not. However, he said there was no move to grant any relief on the pending amount of twenty-five per cent remission on electricity bills.

Earlier, Nain had turned down Sampat Singh’s request to hold a joint press conference to declare the decisions taken during the meeting. Nain clarified that there was no agreement over the issue of remission of pending bills. He added that the situation was back to where it stood on January 31, when Ajay Chautala and Agriculture Minister Jaswinder Sandhu had signed the much-publicised Kandela agreement for a meeting to discuss the issue of remission of pending bills.

Sampat Singh said the chief minister will provide compensation to the tune of Rs five lakh to the dependents of those killed in police firing from the party’s funds.

However, despite Sampat Singh’s assurances that the issue of remission of pending bills would be discussed upon the CM’s return, Nain refused to oblige Singh’s request to hold a joint press conference, saying that verbal promises could not be depended on.