The Hindu : Other States / Punjab News : Badal returns official security vehicles

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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Badal returns official security vehicles

Staff Correspondent

`Amarinder Singh has deliberately allocated ramshackle transport'

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal president, Parkash Singh Badal, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, has returned the two security vehicles provided to him by the State police, alleging that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had deliberately allocated ramshackle, rickety and clattering vehicles out of personal spite for him. In a statement here on Tuesday, Mr. Badal claimed he had brought the shabby condition of the vehicles to the notice of the police.

The Chief Security Officer attached to the Akali leader had also written to the Additional Director General of Police (Security) about the need to change the vehicles in view of the security considerations but the plea was stonewalled.

A botheration

Mr. Badal said that the State security vehicles had better not been with him any longer as they were more a bother to the security staff than of any help. Only vehicles that could not even keep pace with his convoy were attached with him on purpose, he charged expressing surprise that on the one hand the police chief was talking about the wide network of terror in the State and a rise in threat perception to the VIPs, on the other he was unable to upgrade even the routine security transport with the Leader of the Opposition.

Meanwhile, Mr. Badal took notice of media reports quoting Deputy Chief Minister, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, seeking a special Cabinet meeting on the alarming law and order situation in the State.

`Sinister design'

He saw a sinister design in the Amarinder Singh-Simranjit Singh Mann nexus to inject tension and trouble into the State polity and alleged that the two were working in tandem to raise the decibel levels through provocative sloganeering.

Mr Badal said that the reported threats to Mrs. Bhattal's life and the sensational disclosures made by the State police chief about the deeply penetrative network of elements out to disturb peace must be seen as related developments as the enemies of peace have been emboldened by the politics of divisive polarisation being resorted to by the Chief Minister.

Holding the Chief Minister responsible for the present situation, Mr. Badal expressed concern at the sudden spurt in acts prejudicial to peace and communal harmony in the State. "Amarinder has been propping up elements notorious for their role in spoiling peace and harmony in the State with the twin objective of diverting people's attention from his massive failures in governance and creating a communal polarization in the State with a view to blaming it on the Akalis later on,'' he added.

Mr. Badal rubbished Mr. Mann's "diversionary propaganda'' that he had been jailed at the behest of the secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

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