Capt supports service chiefs’ objections over pay anomalies

Monday, 12/09/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=164806&boxid=58689&uid=&dat=2016-09-12

Chandigarh : Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday supported the objections raised by the three services chiefs over the anomalies in the pay scales of the defence personnel in the Seventh Pay Commission.

“There is brazen and blatant discrimination with the defence services in the pay scales which is disgusting and condemnable”, the former Punjab Chief Minister said in a statement issued here on Sunday. He hailed the stand taken by the three services chiefs on the issue.

“The pay commission recommendations, obviously scripted by the bureaucrats have shown brazen and blatant bias against the defence services”, he said, while adding, instead of the defence services getting a better deal for the hostile conditions they are made to work, they have been subjected to a raw deal.

“Just because our soldiers are disciplined and dedicated to serving the nation should not mean that they should be discriminated against”, he warned, while adding, “we owe our peace and peaceful lives to those guarding our borders and taking bullets on their chests and hence we must have a fair sense of gratitude towards them.”

Sidhu’s outfit ‘BJP-sponsored programme’: Congress

New Delhi: In political doghouse in Punjab for nearly a decade, Congress on Sunday said it suspected the new outfit floated by cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu was a “BJP-sponsored programme” to divide anti-incumbency votes.

The party also came down hard on Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, dubbing it as “a bunch of opportunists” whose real face is getting exposed in the wake of sex scandals and serious charges of financial irregularities against their leaders.

“It looks like a BJP-sponsored programme. We have to wait and see how many BJP people board Sidhu’s bandwagon,” AICC Secretary Asha Kumari, who is in-charge of party’s affairs in Punjab said.

She suspected the new front could have been floated to divide AAP votes in order to help the Akali Dal.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh said, “Their status looks like that of a confused and undecided couple which is not sure whether it should marry or just carry on with the relationship to keep all the future options open”.

Attacking the AAP, which it is battling in Punjab in its quest of returning to power after a decade, Asha Kumari said, “It is gathering of opportunists with no ideals and no constitution and are answerable to none.”