Withdraw farm laws, says Punjab CM

The newly-inducted chief minister of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi held a courtesy meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today. He urged the PM to withdraw three farm laws and open Pakistan India Corridor.

Chandigarh:Newly-appointed Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi held a 40-minute long discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over various issues in the state today.

He urged the Centre to withdraw the three farm laws, against which farmers have been protesting for nearly a year. Later, he urged PM to open Pakistan India Corridor which has been closed due to pandemic.

The Punjab chief minister also asked the Centre to withdraw its letter on postponing the paddy procurement in the state from October 1. Paddy procurement usually commences from October 1.

The Centre on Thursday postponed procurement of Kharif paddy in Punjab and Haryana till October 11 as the crop maturity is delayed owing to recent heavy rains. Crop procurement is undertaken by the central government's nodal agency Food Corporation of India along with state agencies.

Channi is also expected to meet his party's senior leadership in Delhi today. Notably, a coordination panel will be set up, which is expected to be consulted before any major decisions by the Punjab government in future.

The decision to form the panel was reached earlier on Thursday after an over two-hour meeting at the Punjab Congress Bhavan between Channi and Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had tendered his resignation from the post of the state party chief on Tuesday. The panel would comprise the chief minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu and a representative of the All India Congress Committee, sources said.

A miffed Sidhu on Wednesday had raised questions over the appointments of the DGP, the state's advocate general and "tainted" leaders. Sources said that Sidhu has been backing senior IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyay to be appointed as the DGP.

Meanwhile, the Channi government has suggested the names of 10 officials to the Union Public Service Commission for the appointment of a regular director general of police. The names include Chattopadhyay, present DGP Dinkar Gupta and Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, V K Bhawra, sources said. Sahota was a week ago given the additional charge of the Punjab DGP after incumbent DGP Dinkar Gupta proceeded on leave.

On Thursday, Sidhu had reached Chandigarh from Patiala to meet Channi. The meeting came a day after Channi reached out to him and offered to resolve issues through talks.

Just before his meeting with Channi, Sidhu attacked Sahota, alleging that the new DGP had wrongly indicted two Sikh youths in a desecration case and gave a clean chit to the Badals. The desecration of a religious text allegedly took place in Punjab's Faridkot district in 2015, whose investigation was handed over by the then Parkash Singh Badal-led government to an SIT led by the current DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota.

With agency input