‘If Centre Does Not Roll Back, Then…’: At All-Party Meeting, Punjab CM Ups the Ante Over BSF Jurisdiction
In an attempt to put up a joint front against the Union government, a meeting of all major political parties in Punjab took a unanimous decision on Monday to demand immediate withdrawal of notification to increase the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) in the State from 15 km to 50 km.
The all-party meeting had been called by the Punjab Congress even though the State unit of the BJP had decided to give it a miss.
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Chief Minister Charanjit Channi said the all-party meeting has also decided to call a session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to outrightly reject the notification on BSF. Terming the notification as politically motivated, PCC Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said the notification was timed at the forthcoming assembly elections. “The notification amounted to creating State within a State,” he said.
He emphasised that the law and order was a State subject and cited the example of West Bengal, where the BSF was used to inflict torture on people during the Assembly elections. “Since the BJP has been outrightly rejected in Punjab, the saffron party misusing its powers to create trouble in Punjab,” he said, adding that the Centre had not taken the State into confidence while issuing the notification.
Channi said, “All parties unanimously passed a resolution that this notification be rolled back (by Central Govt). If the government does not do it, parties decided that a session of Vidhan Sabha be called over this,”
“In the coming Vidhan Sabha session, to be scheduled in the next 15 days, a resolution would be brought to reject the three central farm laws,” he added. Sidhu said the fight would be fought in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, also. apart from launching agitation.
Earlier, the BJP’s Punjab unit has decided to boycott the meeting claiming there was no conflict between the BSF and the State police. Alleging that the Congress-led Punjab government has failed to fulfil the promises made in the manifesto, the party said that the Congress government should discuss the party manifesto during the all-party meeting. “There is no confrontation between the BSF and the State police and materials seized during the search operation will be handed over to the police,” said a party spokesman.
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( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.news18.com feed.)
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