The walls of Punjab Vidhan Sabha reverberated on Wednesday with the issues of Ludhiana gang-rape and the lathi-charge on the protesting teachers at Patiala.
The opposition parties cornered the ruling Congress over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, even as the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh claimed that the situation has “improved in the past two years” citing figures.
In fact, the issue prompted the Chief Minister to announce that he would soon be meeting the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to urge him to set special courts to fast track rape cases.
Raising the issue during the zero hour, several leaders from the opposition parties — SAD-BJP, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) — condemned both the incidents, and staged separate walkouts.
Both the SAD-BJP combine, and the AAP have submitted separate adjournment motions to discuss in detail a serious issue of lathi-charge in the protesting teachers, including women, which were rejected by the Speaker Rana KP Singh.
SAD MLA Parminder Singh Dhindsa and the Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema raised the teachers’ issue. As the Speaker disallowed them to speak, SAD-BJP MLAs entered the well of the House, shouting slogans. After a brief protest, they MLAs staged a walkout.
At the same time, AAP MLA Sarabjit Kaur Manuke raised the Ludhiana gang-rape issue and that of mercilessly beating of the female teachers asking the Government to initiate steps to protect the “fair sex”.
“Had the Mullanpur Dakha police acted upon the input provided by the victim’s friend, the incident could have been averted,” she said.
Supporting her, AAP MLA HS Phoolka described gang-rape as a “serious matter”, and sought an assurance from the Chief Minister to adopt a zero-tolerance towards such a heinous crime. “Even little negligence by the police officers in such matter should be taken seriously and such an action be taken to send across a strong message,” he said.
LIP MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains demanded that the government should look into the teachers’ genuine demands. He also took a dig at the Chief Minister for being “over-burned”, while asking him to hand over the Home Department to someone else, Bains stated that law and order has failed miserable in the state.
AAP MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan maintained that if the police would be made accountable, everything would be fine. “If the police was alert, the criminals could not have a free run. The people were keen on seeing Capt Amarinder acting fast to improve the crippling law and order situation, which is a cause of concern for the law abiding citizens,” he said.
As the Speaker refused to further take the issue, the AAP MLAs entered the well of the House, and staged a walkout after a brief protest. Interestingly, the five rebel MLAs did not budge from their seats.
Notably, a 21-year old woman was allegedly raped by ten men near Issewal village on the banks of Sidwan canal near Ludhiana, after the car she was travelling in with her friend was stopped and she was dragged out.
A case has been registered against six men at Dakha police station in Mullanpur town of Ludhiana district. The police officials have also released sketches of suspected men in the case.
