Cong demands CBI probe

PATIALA, June 16: The senior Congress leaders of Patiala district here yesterday demanded a CBI probe into the circumstances leading to Punjab government’s decision to have ballot papers for the ensuing panchayat poll printed from private printing presses in New Delhi, while these should have been printed at the government printing presses in the state.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, the Congress leaders including former public health minister Jasjit Singh Randhawa, former MP Santram Singla and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Brij Lal Goyal demanded the suspension of Samana BDPO. A case should be registered against him for rejecting the nomination papers of the Congress supporters on flimsy grounds, they said.

These Congress leaders said the Akali Dal legislator from Samana had brandished a revolver and threatened the protesting Congress supporters. The police instead of registering a case against the Akali Dal workers booked the Congress supporters, they alleged.

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They demanded that the cases against the Congress workers be withdrawn and fresh case registered against the Akali leaders and workers who had threatened and intimidated the Congress workers.

They warned that in case it was not done the Congress would resort to a peaceful agitation. The Congress leaders said the process of panchayat elections in the state had lost all meaning in view of the unprecedented bungling by Akali Dal leaders through the BDPOS.