Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today questioned the rationale and intent of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in setting up a grievances office at the state police headquarters.“It either reflects the DyCM’s lack of confidence in himself or his own Director General of Police”, he remarked, while at the same time asking who will allow a common man access to the fortified police headquarters in Chandigarh. The grievance cell should be in each police station, he observed.Reacting to the development, Capt Amarinder said, it was surprising and unprecedented that the Deputy Chief Minister who is also the Home Minister of the state felt the need of setting up his grievance redressal office at the police headquarters next to the office of the Director General of Police.The former Chief Minister maintained that this was quite against the established protocol that the Deputy Chief Minister had to go to the police headquarters for setting up the grievance redressal office.“It raises questions whether the will of the DyCM is prevailing in the police or not”, he observed, while adding, otherwise why would a Home Minister need to himself go the police headquarters and not summon the DGP to his office.He said, it was quite unprecedented development in the history of the state that a Deputy Chief Minister who is also the Home Minister had to set up his “Centre for Public Complaints” in DGP’s office.Capt Amarinder said, setting up of this centre or launching a web portal or toll free number was not going to solve the problem of law and order in the state as long as the Akali Jathedars do not rule the police stations.
“It is a strange coincidence that while the Akali goons and members of the Bikram Sena are sitting in the police stations, the DyCM will start sitting at the police headquarters the same way in the name of his complaints centre”, he remarked while having a dig at Sukhbir.