Opposing the Punjab cabinet's decision to clear the bill for setting up Khalsa University in Amritsar, Congress Legislature Party chief Charanjit Singh Channi today alleged that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his "extended family" have turned "land-grabbers".
Addressing a party workers' meeting near here, he said, "Khalsa University is proposed to be set up on a land belonging to the historic Khalsa College which is a part of Sikh heritage. The land was donated by Kot Khalsa village for a specific purpose."
"However, the management was subsequently usurped by the Majithia family," he alleged in a refernce to state Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
Channi claimed that Khalsa University too would be managed by a separate trust the members of which are from the Badal and Majithia families and opposed the setting up of a private institution on a land donated by the people for a public cause, calling it "highly objectionable".
"This amounts to land-grab by the Badal and Majithia families," he alleged, saying Congress would have no objection if the university was set up elsewhere but not on the Khalsa College land.
