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Punjab Congress feud hots up

Staff Correspondent

"All" Ministers rally behind CM over Brar allegations on RIL deal

CHANDIGARH: The factional feud within the Punjab unit of the Congress has got murkier after information about the State Government's proposal to grant land to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up an agricultural marketing network was unveiled recently. The issue threatens to create a vertical fissure in the party, which ought to be preparing for the Punjab Assembly elections due in less than nine months.

The State Government's Information and Public Relations Department released a statement, purportedly signed by "all" Ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, Parliamentary Secretaries and Congress legislators, urging the party chief Sonia Gandhi to expel Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Jagmeet Brar as he was trying to damage the reputation of the party and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh by levelling baseless allegations.

Reacting to Mr. Brar's statement over the RIL issue, these leaders said that he was behaving more like a "campaign manager" of Shiromani Akali Dal rather than as a responsible member of the highest decision-making forum of the Congress. They said it was unfortunate that when Capt. Singh along with the president of the State unit of the party, Shamsher Singh Dullo, was preparing for the ensuing Assembly elections, Mr. Brar chose to create confusion among the party cadre.

They urged the party high command to rein in Mr. Brar and his supporters well in time as such indiscipline would jeopardise the prospects of the Congress.

They said it was not the first time that Mr. Brar had flouted party discipline by sowing seeds of dissension.

Meanwhile, Mr. Brar's supporters Tara Singh Sandhu, Kulbir Singh and Harinder Pal Singh Mann challenged the Chief Minister to place the entire deal with the RIL and other industrial houses, before all ministers and legislators for a thorough discussion. They said they were sure that no leader who was concerned about the well being of the people "would allow open loot of Punjab".

In a statement, they said that according to the various proposals, 68,000 acres of land was being "gifted" to RIL, while mega projects had consumed another 23,000 acres of farm land, thousands of acres of land had been acquired from farmers to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Amritsar, another 1,600 acres would be taken up by the Airport at Halwara and 376 acres had been acquired for the Trident group.

The Brar loyalists cited a Supreme Court ruling to argue that all farmers who had been dispossessed of their lands should either be compensated through allocation of land or be given adequate share in the projects. They said that in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, seventy-five per cent jobs are reserved for the locals wherever a large project is set up.

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