Punjab Chief Minister Channi to fulfill Prime Minister Modi on Friday

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday and is anticipated to induce him that the Centre withdraws its letter on suspending the paddy procurement within the state from October 1.

This shall be Channi’s first assembly with Modi after the senior Congress chief took oath as Punjab chief minister lately.

Channi can also be prone to meet senior Congress leaders throughout his go to to the nationwide capital amid the continuing tumult within the occasion’s Punjab unit, sources mentioned.

In accordance with a senior Punjab authorities official, Chief Minister Channi will meet Prime Minister Modi. Sources mentioned in his assembly with Modi, Channi is prone to urge the Centre to instantly begin paddy procurement within the state.

The Punjab chief minister on Thursday had urged the Centre to withdraw its letter on suspending the paddy procurement within the state from October 1. Paddy procurement normally commences from October 1.

Channi had sought the prime minister’s private intervention in advising the ministry involved to withdraw its letter forthwith, permitting the state to begin paddy procurement from October 1 as an alternative of October 11, in response to an official assertion right here on Thursday.

The Centre on Thursday postponed procurement of Kharif paddy in Punjab and Haryana until October 11 because the crop maturity is delayed owing to current heavy rains. Crop procurement is undertaken by the central authorities’s nodal company Meals Company of India together with state companies.

Channi can also be anticipated to fulfill his occasion’s senior management in Delhi. Notably, a coordination panel shall be arrange, which is anticipated to be consulted earlier than any main choices by the Punjab authorities in future.

The choice to type the panel was reached earlier on Thursday after an over two-hour assembly on the Punjab Congress Bhavan between Channi and Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had tendered his resignation from the put up of the state occasion chief on Tuesday.

The panel would comprise the chief minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu and a consultant of the All India Congress Committee, sources mentioned.

A miffed Sidhu on Wednesday had raised questions over the appointments of the DGP, the state’s advocate common and “tainted” leaders. Sources mentioned that Sidhu has been backing senior IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyay to be appointed because the DGP.

In the meantime, the Channi authorities has recommended the names of 10 officers to the Union Public Service Fee for the appointment of a daily director common of police. The names embody Chattopadhyay, current DGP Dinkar Gupta and Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, V Okay Bhawra, sources mentioned.

Sahota was every week in the past given the extra cost of the Punjab DGP after incumbent DGP Dinkar Gupta proceeded on go away.

On Thursday, Sidhu had reached Chandigarh from Patiala to fulfill Channi. The assembly got here a day after Channi reached out to him and supplied to resolve points by talks.

Simply earlier than his assembly with Channi, Sidhu attacked Sahota, alleging that the brand new DGP had wrongly indicted two Sikh youths in a desecration case and gave a clear chit to the Badals.

The desecration of a spiritual textual content allegedly occurred in Punjab’s Faridkot district in 2015, whose investigation was handed over by the then Parkash Singh Badal-led authorities to an SIT led by the present DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota.