Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday vowed to end the culture of violence in the state, declaring that all gangsters would be wiped out from Punjab in the crackdown launched against them by the police.Talking to media persons on the sidelines of the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected Congress MLA from Shahkot, Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia, at the Vidhan Sabha here, the Chief Minister said the police were hard on the heels of the gangsters and all those taking the law in their hands. None of them would be spared, he added.The Chief Minister thanked the people of Shahkot for Laddi’s resounding victory, which had given the Congress government 2/3rds majority in the state Assembly, thereby empowering it to pass important legislations in the interest of the people.On the issue of the reported violence against Dalit Sikhs in Shillong, Captain Amarinder Singh said he was seized of the matter and was keeping a tab on the situation. The Chief Minister said as per the reports received by him from the delegation, led by Cabinet Minister Sukjinder Singh, there was no damage of any kind to any Gurdwara in Shillong. The delegation was satisfied with the steps taken by the Meghalayan government to control the situation, he added.
Responding to a query, Captain Amarinder Singh said his government was doing everything possible to make Punjab pollution-free. One isolated accident could not be seen as mass-scale pollution of all our rivers, he said, in a reference to the Beas leakage.Meanwhile, Laddi, who was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Speaker Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rana KP Singh in the presence of the Chief Minister, thanked the people of his constituency for expressing faith in the policies and programmes of the Captain Amarinder Singh led government. Laddi termed it a victory of the pro-people initiatives being taken and executed by State Government for the welfare of all sections of society, and said the people of Shahkot had rejected the issueless and visionless opposition.On the accusations levelled against him by his opponents during the run-up to the by-poll, he said the opposition had gone berserk in desperation and had got a befitting reply from the electorate. He lambasted the Akali leadership for not doing any development in Shahkot during their tenure and promised the uplift of the constituency under the Congress leadership, especially in the areas of education, health and other basic amenities.Besides Laddi’s family members, others present on the occasion included Cabinet Ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and OP Soni, Chairman Markfed Amarjit Singh Samra, former Minister and Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit Singh, MLAs Nathu Ram, Fatehjang Singh Bajwa, Raj Kumar Verka, Pargat Singh, Navtej Singh Cheema, Ramanjit Singh Sikki, Harminder Singh Gill, Satkar Kaur, Pritam Singh Kotbhai, Darshan Lal Mangupur, Sunil Dutti, Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala, Chaudhary Surinder Singh, Barinderjit Singh Pahra, Balwinder Singh Laddi, Gurpreet Singh GP and former Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur.