Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar assures unhappy MLAs

PATIALA: Four Congress MLAs from Patiala district who raised several issues during a November 16 public meeting chaired by cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, met Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Monday evening.
The meeting took place at wedding ceremony here. Jakhar, who recently said he would hold a meeting with all party MLAs before taking up the issue of a “non-responsive bureaucracy” with chief minister Amarinder Singh, assured legislators Hardial Kamboj, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Rajinder Singh and Nirmal Singh Shautrana that the issues were in knowledge of those concerned, said a source in the party.The source added that he told them no stone would be left unturned in ensuring the issues raised by MLAs of the incumbent party were dealt with by district officials. He said feedback had been sought from all MLAs and the matter would be discussed with the CM.
The four MLAs had alleged that they were being sidelined. Rajinder, MLA from Samana, had claimed that his phone calls were being recorded by the in-charge of the crime investigating agency (CIA) wing of the police in Samana. Hardial, Rajpura MLA, said Patiala sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) had demanded a bribe of Rs 7 lakh from the sarpanch of Sular village and the in-charge of Rajpura CIA was patronising drug dealers.
Jalalpur, MLA from Ghanaur, had pointed out that police had failed to act against those who attacked Congress supporters inside the emergency ward of Rajpura civil hospital. Nirmal Singh, Shutrana MLA, had said local officials were unresponsive to issues raised by him and in implementing welfare schemes approved by the CM.
The state government has so far transferred the Patiala SDM to the personnel department in Chandigarh, while the in-charge of Samana CIA has been transferred to Nabha. The police department has dismissed in-charge of Rajpura along with two sub-inspectors for being hand in glove with drug dealers. The in-charge of Rajpura police, who had failed to arrest those who had attacked Congress supporters inside the civil hospital emergency ward, has been placed under suspension.
On Monday, Nirmal had said if he continued to be sidelined in his own constituency, he would protest outside the residence of the CM as all development projects in his constituency had been stalled. To placate the four legislators, who had raised serious concerns over the working of the government, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur had even taken them along to attend a ceremony at Nurmahal in a helicopter.