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Amarinder leaves leadership issue to high command

By Our Staff Corespondent

CHANDIGARH, SEPT. 8 . The Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, has left it all to the Congress high command to decide about a change in leadership in the State, as well as allotting party tickets to contestants for the by-elections to two Assembly seats slated for October 13.

Talking to reporters, Capt. Singh denied knowledge about any proposal to send him as an Ambassador to some country, after making a "suitable replacement'' to lead the party's government in Punjab. However, he added that any decision by the party president would be acceptable to him.

The Chief Minister said that during his meetings with the party leadership, he had favoured the Congress putting up candidates both at Garhshankar and Kapurthala constituencies from where the legislators, Avinash Rai Khanna and Rana Gurjit Singh, have been elected to the Lok Sabha.

Responding to the question that the CPI (M), which was part of the ruling alliance at the Centre, had already named its candidate from Garhshankar, Capt. Singh said that the matter would be taken up when the Union Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who is in-charge of the party affairs in the State, visits Punjab shortly. He stressed that the final decision on the matter rested with the high command.

Capt. Singh stated that arrangements were in place to provide a minimum eight-hour power supply for the farm sector during the forthcoming sowing season for the wheat crop. He stressed the need to implement various suggestions by experts to manage the declining water table in the State.

The Chief Minister denied any proposal to provide government employment to Sukhdev Singh, one of the three truck drivers who were recently released by their captors in Iraq. He said that the family had been adequately compensated monetarily and reminded that they had gone to Iraq on their own.

However, he assured strict action against the travel agents, who were fleecing hapless young men under the garb of sending them abroad.

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