Special orientation plan for Punjab MLAs

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday envisioned that the Special Orientation Programme being organised for the MLAs of the state will act as benchmark for quality debates and legislative work in the Punjab assembly during the ensuing sessions.

The Chief Minister, while addressing the MLAs during the inaugural session of the Orientation program here in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, said that this is a path breaking initiative that will bring qualitative change in the functioning of the assembly. He said that people have elected the MLAs with a whopping mandate and they have high expectations from them. Bhagwant Mann said that these aspirations can be cherished through active participation of the MLAs in debates and law making procedures.

The Chief Minister said that the time has come when all the political parties in the state must sink their differences and work in tandem with each other for safeguarding the interests of the state. He said that the political parties in other states unite for the common cause of their state and its people but this feature is missing in the state. Bhagwant Mann said that this is the need of hour to ensure that issues of the state are resolved at the earliest. Citing the example of a faulty decision of the Union government to supply coal to the state from its allotted coal mine via sea route, the Chief Minister said that this arbitrary decision of centre is irrational. He said that the state uses this coal for producing paddy which plays a key role in filling the food bowl of the country. Bhagwant Mann said that Punjab is being made to bear high expense of coal just which is unjustified, intolerable and unwarranted.

The Chief Minister said that in democracy people are supreme and the government is run by the people elected by them. However, he quipped that some selected persons of the centre are just peeping their nose into the affairs of state which cannot be tolerated. Bhagwant Mann said that these selected persons should remain in the area of their own jurisdiction rather than locking horns with the elected representatives of people.