Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday and is expected to urge him that the Center withdraw its letter on the postponement of paddy procurement in the state from October 1.
This will be Channi’s first meeting with Modi after the senior Congress leader was recently sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Sources said Channi is also likely to meet Sonia Gandhi and Rahul during his visit to the national capital amid the uproar in the party’s Punjab unit.
According to a senior Punjab government official, Chief Minister Channi will meet Prime Minister Modi. Sources said Channi in his meeting with Modi is likely to urge the Center to immediately start procurement of paddy in the state.
The Punjab Chief Minister had on Thursday urged the Center to withdraw his letter to suspend paddy procurement in the state from October 1. The procurement of paddy usually starts from October 1.
According to an official statement here on Thursday, Channi had sought the Prime Minister’s personal intervention in advising the concerned ministry to withdraw his letter immediately, allowing the state to start procurement of paddy from October 1 instead of October 11. .
The Center on Thursday postponed the procurement of kharif paddy in Punjab and Haryana till October 11 as the maturity of the crop has been delayed due to the recent heavy rains. The crop is procured by the Food Corporation of India, the nodal agency of the central government as well as state agencies.
Channi is also expected to meet senior leadership of his party in Delhi. Notably, a coordination panel will be set up, which is expected to be consulted before any major decision by the Punjab government in future. The decision to form the panel came after a meeting of over two hours between Channi and Navjot Singh Sidhu at the Punjab Congress Bhawan on Thursday, who tendered his resignation from the post of state party chief on Tuesday.
Sources said the panel would include Chief Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and representatives of the All India Congress Committee. Angered by this, Sidhu on Wednesday questioned the appointment of DGP, State Advocate General and tainted leaders. Sources said Sidhu is supporting senior IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyay to be made DGP.
Meanwhile, the Channi government has suggested the names of 10 officers to the Union Public Service Commission for the appointment of the regular Director General of Police. The names include Chattopadhyay, current DGP Dinkar Gupta and Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, VK Bhavra, sources said.
Sahota was given the additional charge of Punjab DGP a week ago after the current DGP Dinkar Gupta had gone on leave. On Thursday, Sidhu had reached Chandigarh from Patiala to meet Channi. The meeting took place a day after Channi reached out and offered to resolve the issues through talks.
Just before meeting Channi, Sidhu attacked Sahota, alleging that the new DGP wrongly accused two Sikh youths of sacrilege and gave a clean chit to Badal. There was an alleged desecration of a religious text in Punjab’s Faridkot district in 2015, the investigation of which was handed over by the then Parkash Singh Badal-led government to an SIT headed by current DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota.
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