Punjab Chief Minister and CLP leader Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday led the Vidhan Sabha in paying homage to eminent personalities, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ex-Speaker of Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee, who had passed since the last session of the Assembly.The House, at the outset of its monsoon session, paid respects to freedom fighters, political and other eminent personalities, as well as soldiers who had sacrificed their lives, observing a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls, during the obituary references.Besides Vajpayee and Somnath, the House paid tributes to former Deputy Chief Minister Punjab Balramji Dass Tandon, former Minister Surinder Singla, ex-MLAs Joginder Nath and Kuldeep Singh Wadala, as well as noted journalist and writer Kuldip Nayar.Rich tributes were also paid to freedom fighters namely Om Parkash Sharma, Hazara Singh, Mehal Singh, Darshan Singh, Milkha Singh, Chaman Lal, Bakshis Singh, Rattan Singh, Gurbax Singh and Bachittar Singh.
Speaker Rana Kanwarpal Singh proposed that homage be paid to all those members who had passed away since the previous session. After the obituary references to the 17 eminent personalities, he passed a resolution for conveying the condolences of the House to their respective families. The resolution was passed by voice vote.On the request of Sunam MLA Aman Arora, the name of Freedom Fighter from Sangrur district Jangir Singh Sutantar was included in the list of obituaries.The Speaker also consented to include the name of Tarlok Singh, a victim of hate crime in United States, in the list on the intervention of Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.The Speaker also acceded to the request of Majitha MLA Bikram Singh Majithia to pay tributes to all those soldiers of Army and Para military forces, who sacrificed their lives to safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of the country.