BATHINDA: The Punjab government will provide a security umbrella to each of the municipal candidates for the ensuing municipal committee elections scheduled to be held on August 2.
This was stated by Lt.Gen (Retd) J.K.Puri security advisor to the Chief Minister while talking to the press here.
Puri who had come here to address a district-level meeting on law and order situation expressed big hope that the municipal elections would be incident free like municipal cooperation elections held in the state last year.
Regarding the resignation of panches and sarpanches he said the Punjab government did not intend to accept the resignations as these were being submitted under pressure from militants. Puri said that the Bharatiya Union would not be allowed to stop cooperation of employees and officials for collecting of loans as a part of their civil disobedience moves “If they do so the law would take its own course he added.
In reply to a question regarding withdrawal of the Army Puri clarified that the army was not going anywhere. He said that the Army posted here “belonged to Punjab and would be available to the civil authorities whenever needed.
Puri claimed that the law and order situation in the state had improved considerably as a large number of hardcore and listed militants had died in encounters with the security forces
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1992
