The federal government is not willing to extend President’s rule in the Punjab after it expires on November 11, the junior federal for a home affair, Subodh Kant Sahay, has said, PTI reports.

We are committed to hold elections in the state and not willing to extend President’s rule beyond November 11, Sahay said.

After touring border districts of Punjab, the minister told reporters that the federal government would involve elected representatives in the state’s development and give more powers to the civil administration in a bid to restore confidence among the people and strengthen the democratic institutions.

The minister, who met village folks, headmen and district level police and administration officials, said the process of “‘democrat station of the setup” would have to be implemented within the timeframe of November 11.

Stating that a “core group” of political parties which have a stake in Punjab would be formed within this week, Sahay said it was the joint responsibility of all parties to analyses the situation and take concrete measures to restore normalcy there.

The minister said the district level action plan for development announced on Saturday, would be monitored every 10 days by a three tier system functioning from Amritsar, Chandigarh and Delhi.

The series of district level meetings of sarpanches and development officials, beginning August 2, would be attended by federal ministers, the governor and senior officials. These initiatives would be accompanied by stringent action against militancy, he said.

Struggle against militancy and cooperation for development should go hand in hand to resolve the issue. We have to restore Punjab its pristine glory which it earned during the freedom struggle.”

Answering queries about the reported deployment of national security guards (NSG) in the border districts, he said NSG should not be posted like the normal police force.

He said the patterns in the recent killings showed that the police forces were bearing the brunt of the attack and their casualty rate was “alarming.”

Article extracted from this publication >> August 3, 1990