Punjab LoP Bajwa questions Speaker over 'changing' stand on seeking report from DGP in ASI matter

Chandigarh, Sep 4 (PTI) Punjab Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday questioned Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan over his "change" of stand on the issue of seeking a report from the state police chief regarding a case in which an assistant sub-inspector allegedly received money from a gangster.
    During Zero Hour on the concluding day of the three-day assembly session, the senior Congress leader told the speaker that he could not change his stand after taking "sense of the House".
    Sandhwan on Monday, after taking approval of the House, had sought a report from the DGP in the case in which the ASI in Kotkapura allegedly received money from the gangster.
    However, the Speaker on Tuesday sought a detailed report from the home secretary regarding "black sheep" in different departments, instead of the report from the DGP.
    Bajwa said the Speaker had taken the "sense of the House" which gave approval for calling a report from the DGP in the ASI matter.
    "You are the custodian of the House. When you have taken the sense of the House, you have changed the order and now asked the home secretary to give a report on the black sheep.
    "You could not have done without the approval of the House," pointed out Bajwa.
    Responding to Bajwa, Sandhwan said he went by the "sense of the House" in seeking a report from the home secretary regarding "black sheep" in departments.
    "It is our duty that we should give clean governance. A message has gone from the House that we are deadly against corruption," he said.
    Sandhwan said the ASI had accepted bribe during the previous SAD-BJP and the Congress regimes.
    It was the AAP government which registered FIR against the ASI, he said.
    Later, Congress MLA Pargat Singh also raised the ASI matter in the House to which the Speaker said it was not a personal matter.
    On Monday, Sandhwan had raised the issue of an FIR registered against the ASI in Kotkapura in the House.
    Sandhwan, who is a legislator from the Kotkapura assembly segment, had said the ASI allegedly received money from the gangster through a bank transfer.
    The FIR was registered against the ASI under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act on the statement of the gangster.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)