India News | Batala Issue Was Earlier Raised in Cabinet: Punjab Ministers Bajwa and Randhawa

Chandigarh, Sep 7 (PTI) A day after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh took a swipe at his two dissident ministers over the issue of declaring Batala as a new district, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa Tuesday said the matter was earlier raised in a cabinet meeting.

In a letter to the CM, both the ministers also said they were least bothered as to who gets the credit for creating Batala as the 24th district of the state.

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Tript and Randhawa were responding to the Punjab CM's statement Monday in which he had said that the Batala issue was already under consideration.

The CM had also pointed out that Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa had raised this issue in a letter last month.

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Tript and Randhawa on September 4 had sought a meeting with the CM over the creation of Batala as a new district of the state. "You can give credit to whosoever you want and we are just not bothered about such trivialities. But please just concede our request."

Maintaining that this issue was earlier raised in the cabinet meeting, they wrote, "You (the CM) may not even remember that in the cabinet meeting in which it was decided to make Malerkotla a district, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and the then President of Punjab Congress Sunil Jakhar (special invitee) had raised their voice for upgrading Batala to a district."

They wrote, "Your statement in the newspapers also reveals that Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa has also written a letter to you to make Batala a district. This is a bit surprising because the person who has direct access to you should not have the need to write a letter to you."

"Needless to say, these letters have been a source of disgrace to the Congress party, your government and you personally also," they added.

Seeking to justify them writing a letter to the CM, the two ministers said, "We had to adopt the medium of writing to you to convey to you the legitimate and longstanding demand of the people of Batala city and region to make Batala a district because you have been distancing from public for a long time."

"All meetings, including the cabinet, are being held by video conference. So we had no choice but to write to you."

Tript and Randhawa were earlier considered close to Amarinder Singh but later turned his critics. Two other ministers Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Charanjit Singh Channi had declared a rebellion against the CM.

Partap Singh Bajwa, who was previously known as a strident critic of Amarinder Singh, appeared to have sided with the Punjab CM, amid the internal rift in the Punjab Congress.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)