There seems to be no let up in the infighting within the Punjab Congress as the controversy surrounding government jobs for children of two Congress legislators on ‘compassionate grounds’ by the State government refuses to die down.
Congress MLA Fatehjang Singh Bajwa on Thursday turned down the government job offer for his son Arjun Pratap Singh Bajwa, saying that the family decided to decline the job offer amid the ‘petty politics’ being played on the issue. He alleged that the opposition parties and some members of the Congress were playing cheap politics.
“Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa’s (Minister) son is the Gurdaspur zila parishad chairman, Sukhbinder Sarkaria’s (Minister) nephew is the chairman of the Amritsar zila parishad and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar’s nephew is the chairman of the Punjab State Farmers’ Commission,” he pointed out.
Last week, the Punjab Cabinet as a special case, gave approval to appoint Arjun Pratap Singh Bajwa as an Inspector in the Punjab police. The Cabinet said the applicant is the grandson of ex-Punjab Minister Satnam Singh Bajwa, who laid down his life in 1987 for the sake of peace and harmony in the State. Mr. Arjun is son of Fatehjang Singh Bajwa, the Congress MLA from Qadian.
The Cabinet also gave the nod to the appointment of Bhisham Pandey, the grandson of Joginder Pal Pandey who was gunned down by terrorists in 1987, as a Naib Tehsildar in Revenue Department. Mr. Bhisham is son of Rakesh Pandey, MLA from Ludhiana.
‘Policy to continue’
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had stated that children, grandchildren of such people would continue to be considered by his government for compensatory appointment on case-to-case basis.
Rubbishing questioning by the ‘Bajwa family’ on appointment of Ajay Vir Jakhar as chairman of Punjab State Farmers’ Commission, Mr. Jakhar said that Ajay Vir did not draw any salary or other emoluments.
Published - June 24, 2021 11:45 pm IST
