Centre Asked Punjab to Pay Rs 7.5 Cr for Sending Military During Pathankot Attack, Claims CM Mann

In another scathing attack against the central government, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said the Narendra Modi-led Centre asked the state to pay Rs 7.5 crore for sending the military during the 2016 Pathankot attack.

Mann was speaking at the one-day special sitting of the first session of the 16th Punjab vidhan sabha. A resolution urging the Centre to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab was also moved by Mann and unanimously adopted and passed.

Referring to “apathetic” treatment meted out to Punjab by the Centre, Mann narrated the incident in 2016 and said the state police force accompanied by central security forces valiantly retaliated the attack and assisted in eliminating terrorists without caring for their personal safety. But, he said, to his utter surprise the Centre raised a bill of Rs 7.50 crore for providing central security forces to the state in this regard.

He said this amount was finally waived off with the personal intervention of the then union home minister Rajnath Singh, after he and fellow AAP leader Sadhu Singh met him.

“It is highly paradoxical that the border state which is facing the brunt of terrorism is also made to pay hefty amount on account of its security,” he added.

Mann further said he also asked Rajnath Singh to give it in writing that Punjab was not part of the country and took the military on rent. “During Pathankot attack, military came. Later I received letter that Punjab should pay Rs 7.5 crore as military was sent. Sadhu Singh and I went to Rajnath Singh and told him to deduct from my MPLAD but give in writing that Punjab isn’t the country’s part and took military from India on rent,” Mann said in the assembly.

In 2016, four terrorists were killed after a suicide attack on the Pathankot base of the Indian Air Force on the intervening night of January 1 and 2. In the 80-hour gun battle, seven security personnel were also killed.

At the special sitting of the Punjab assembly, which was called days after home minister Amit Shah’s announced that central service rules will apply to Chandigarh employees, BJP MLA Ashwani Sharma while opposing the Chandigarh resolution and during deliberations on it, walked out of the assembly in protest. Except the BJP, members of all political parties supported the Chandigarh resolution.

Mann said the AAP-led government will exploit all channels by seeking prior appointment from the Centre to call on the prime minister and home minister to mount pressure in order to take the fight for “legitimate rights” of Punjab to its logical end.

He also criticised the BJP-led central government and its leadership, alleging it was bent upon vendetta politics in states like Punjab, Delhi and West Bengal where it had failed to get the people’s mandate.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)

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