Chandigarh: Punjab Government cabinet minister Aman Arora on Friday alleged that the Centre has denied to issue him political clearance for a visit to Europe where he was scheduled to take part in a knowledge sharing study trip.
"Sadly, the Union government has denied me permission to visit Germany, Netherlands and Belgium on a knowledge-sharing study tour on green hydrogen being sponsored by the Indo-German Energy Forum to tackle stubble burning and pollution," tweeted Arora. He was scheduled to start on the weel-long trip to Europe on Saturday.
The development come at a time when the the ruling AAP in Punjab is involved into a political slugfest with the BJP and has accused the saffron party of trying topple its government in Punjab. According to a state government statement, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had cleared a list of 13-member delegation, including Aman Arora, on September 14 but the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not issued political clearance to the minister.
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Arora asked is the Centre "politically so insecure from the AAP leadership that it resorted to cheap tactics like denying political clearance". He also said that from Punjab he was to participate in the event, which was being sponsored by the Indo-German Forum and neither the Centre nor the state government had to bear any expenses for it.
"While the Centre gave clearance to other states and other delegates who were to participate, but only I have been denied the permission and political clearance has not been given," said Arora. "This knowledge-sharing tour from September 24 to October 2 was of much importance for planning and developing new and renewable energy resources in the state to meet future requirements besides ensuring a green and clean environment," said Arora.
The Union government's "such unnecessary interference will be a threat to the federal structure of the nation", he said. The minister claimed the success of people-friendly policies of AAP has presented a strong challenge to the "BJP's model of hate and lies."
