Capt Amarinder seeks dismissal of Punjab govt, President’s rule

CHANDIGARH, January 5: Holding the Charanjit Singh Channi government squarely responsible for the gross security lapse during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab, that eventually led to cancellation of all his programmes, today, former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President’s rule in the state.

In a statement issued here today, the former Chief Minister said, “this government has lost all the moral and constitutional authority to continue in office as it failed in its constitutional duty to provide security to our Prime Minister”.

He said, by trying to deflect the issue and claim that it was a spontaneous protest by some people that blocked the Prime Minister’s route, the government was trying to defend the indefensible and run away from responsibility.

“If the Prime Minister of the country has to cancel all his programmes owing to a grave security breach, what should be the plight of the ordinary person living in Punjab?” the former Chief Minister asked, while asserting that sooner this government was dismissed better it would be for the state and its people.

Capt Amarinder said, it was a deliberate mischief of the government to disrupt the Prime Minister’s programmes in Punjab, as he was to start various development projects to the tune of more than Rs 50,000 crores, which would benefit the people of the state.

The former Chief Minister regretted that this government had stooped so low that it orchestrated disruption of the rally and did not provide proper security to the Prime Minister and he had to cancel his programmes. “Just because he belongs to the opposition party does not mean that you disrupt his programmes, after all he is the Prime Minister of the entire country”, Capt Amarinder told the Chief Minister, while adding, “what happened today was shameful and disgraceful and the government and the Chief Minister cannot escape the responsibility for it”.