Capt denies he’s being made ambassador

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Wednesday denied a media report that he was being appointed India’s ambassador to a country. ‘‘Why should I go as an ambassador? My continuation as Chief Minister is a decision of the Congress high command,’’ he said in reply to a query at a press conference here. According to the media report, the Congress high command had decided to appoint Singh as an ambassador, make his wife Lok Sabha MP Preneet Kaur a minister in the Union Cabinet and field his son Raninder from the Patiala constituency to be vacated by Singh.

Singh said he had recently met Union Defence Minister and senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee, who is also in charge of Punjab affairs, and told him that Congress should contest bypolls for for both Garh Shankar and Kapurthala Assembly seats in the state. The Chief Minister also said that Mukherjee was expected to visit the state soon.

To a question on taking action against travel agents who had sent the three Indians, who were abducted and later released by Iraqi militants, Singh said the state government was regularly taking action against unauthorised and unscrupulous travel agents. — (PTI)