Congress today objected to the Punjab government's consent to shift former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to Bathinda central jail from Tihar, questioning the motive of the Badal-led dispensation behind such a step.
During the Zero Hour, Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa lambasted the Punjab government for giving the green light to the Delhi government for transferring Chautala to Bathinda jail.
"The Punjab government want to bring jailed Chautala to a prison in Punjab...Is this love of Badals for him...How will state benefit from it?" Randhawa asked the ruling SAD-BJP front in the assembly here.
"What love Badal (Parkash Singh, chief minister) has for him (Chautala)?" he sought to know from the government.
"Chautala is behind bars in a corruption case...How will it help in Punjab's development if he is brought from Delhi prison to here in the state," he further posed.
Raising the issue in the House, Leader of the Opposition Sunil Kumar Jakhar willed the government to answer whether Akalis have resolved the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water distribution issue with Chautala's INLD in Haryana.
Intervening in the matter, speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal said the matter is administrative in nature, between the two governments, hence he could not interfere in it.
Congress MLA Ajit Inder Singh Mofar said there are other key issues like farmers crisis that needed urgent attention of the government.
Chautala, along with his son Ajay Chautala and others, is lodged in Tihar jail after being convicted by a Delhi court in a scandal involving recruitment of Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) in Haryana.
The Punjab government is understood to have given the mandatory no-objection certificate to the Delhi government on Chautala's plea that he be transferred to Bathinda jail.
