Punjab Assembly rises within 10 minutes on day one as Congress burns Mann effigy outside

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha’s six-day session opened on Thursday and was adjourned within 10 minutes, after the House paid tributes to the dead. Outside, Congress legislators set fire to an effigy of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and accused his government of losing control over gangsters and the drug trade.

Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan announced that the House would meet again on Friday. Non-official business, listed for after the obituary references, was not taken up.

Tributes, and a request turned down

Members remembered eight people killed in a road accident in Sangrur, former minister Chuni Lal Bhagat, former MP Varinder Singh Bajwa, former MLA Ranjit Singh, the doctor Rattan Lal Mittal and the mother of MLA Manjit Singh Bilaspur.

The Congress asked that two more names be added: Bikramjit Singh, an anti-drug activist from Batala, and Gulzar Singh, who died by suicide in Dirba. The request was not taken up.

Protest at the gates

Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh and Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa were present as the party’s MLAs burned the Mann effigy outside the Vidhan Sabha. Bajwa said the opposition would not let the government sidestep a debate on crime this time. “The government has always been running away from addressing the law and order issue, but we won’t allow it this time,” he said.

Former BJP state president Sunil Jakhar brought two women from Abohar, whose relatives are reported to have died of drug abuse, to the Vidhan Sabha complex. Chandigarh Police detained the women and took them away.

What the session is expected to take up

The killing of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa on 13 October is expected to dominate the coming days. The government is expected to point to its “Yudh Nashiyan Virudh” campaign against drugs, while the Aam Aadmi Party is expected to blame earlier Akali Dal-BJP and Congress governments for shielding the trade and to question the Centre’s anti-narcotics record. The CBI has since taken over the Jhota murder case.

The opposition also plans to press corruption allegations, including a CBI case involving functionaries of the AAP government.

On the government’s side of the agenda are a resolution seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, resolutions on Punjab’s riparian rights over river waters, a demand for repeal of the Dam Safety Act and a new relief measure for women. Farmers’ issues, including the state’s crop procurement record, are also due to come up.

The House sits again on Friday morning.