Amid pandemic, Gurdaspur abuzz with political activity

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, June 14

Heightened political activity is being witnessed in Gurdaspur with leaders, cutting across party lines, making attempts to hog the spotlight amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

A minister said, “Leaders do not want miss any chance of gaining publicity from distributing ration kits, masks, gloves, sanitisers and PPE kits. This is the reason why they are all over the place, notwithstanding the spike in Covid cases.”

Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa recently invited top bureaucrats and police officers to his Dera Baba Nanak residence for dinner. “I had invited just 10 officers and made certain that social distancing norms were strictly followed,” he said.

A bureaucrat disclosed that since Randhawa’s clout within the government and the local administration was well known, every official wanted to be a part of the proceedings. “However, in the times of coronavirus, the minister did well to put a cap on the number of invitees,” he said.

Batala SAD MLA LS Lodhinangal, besides being actively involved in the distribution of ration to needy, held a press conference where he showed a video in which a PWD officer was seen taking a bribe.

Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, too, was quick to arrive in his Assembly seat of Fatehgarh Churian from Chandigarh as soon as relaxations in lockdown began.

Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar, Gurdaspur Planning Board chief and Congress ticket aspirant from the Batala seat, said, “What should have been an activity inversely proportional to the rise in the number of case, has become directly proportional. The more the number of positive cases, the more politicians can be seen in the streets,” he said. Nijjar has regularly been holding meetings of the Planning Board in Gurdaspur.

Arjun Partap Singh, son of Qadian legislator Fateh Jung Bajwa, too, remained in limelight for distributing medical equipment to health workers.

Sri Hargobindpur MLA Balwinder Laddi is making sure that word spreads among people of his constituency that he was the one who financed ration kits given to needy.

SAD leader Ravi Karan Kahlon remained busy in distributing masks to cops on duty at check posts till his father and former Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon got unwell yesterday.

MP Sunny Deol, who has earned the sobriquet of being “elusive”, is finally slated to make an appearance in Pathankot early next week. Niranjan, his personal assistant, was sent to the constituency a fortnight ago to test political waters.