SAD, BJP urge Punjab Assembly Speaker to extend winter session from 3 to atleast 10 days

Chandigarh: The SAD-BJP combine on Friday asked the Punjab Assembly Speaker to extend the sittings of the House’s winter session to at least 10 days so that debate on emergent issues concerning the state could take place. The three-day winter session of Punjab Assembly would commence from 27 November. A delegation led by former minister Ajit Singh Kohar and senior BJP leader Som Parkash met Speaker Rana KP Singh and asked him to take note of summons issued to AAP leader and MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira by a Fazilka court in a drug case. [caption id=“attachment_3737603” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty images[/caption] Urging the Speaker to extend the sittings of the session, the delegation also sought a debate on other issues like problems faced by the farmers and “non-implementation of poll promises” by the ruling Congress. The delegation accused the Congress government of “playing a friendly match” with Khaira by not presenting a supplementary charge sheet against him in the court. Briefing the media persons about the meeting, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the delegation had asked the Speaker to extend the sittings of the winter session from three to at least 10. Among other things, the SAD-BJP legislators also wanted to discuss the plight of farmers declared defaulters by banks and they were not getting fertiliser from cooperative societies as they thought that the loan waiver announced by the government would soon be implemented, he said. Majithia said the delegation also wanted the government to make the contents of the proposed Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) public. “There is a widespread feeling that PCOCA will put constraints on personal freedom and liberty. The government should call an all-party meeting to discuss the same, besides holding meetings with the civil society,” he said. Majithia also urged the state government to lay the facts in the case pertaining to UK citizen Jagtar Singh Johal, recently arrested for targeted killings in the state, before the Assembly. “Our image is at stake. We must clarify if any human rights violation has occurred in this case,” he said.