Parkash Singh Badal for `severe` punishment for food adulteration

To check food adulteration, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said state government will introduce a bill in the upcoming Assembly session for awarding "severest of severe" punishment.

Muktsar: To check food adulteration, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said state government will introduce a bill in the upcoming Assembly session for awarding "severest of severe" punishment to the people indulging in this heinous crime.

The state government was fully committed to check this menace, posing major health hazard for people, he told reporters on the sidelines of a religious programme here.

He said that the bill for making strict provisions to check adulteration of food will be presented in the upcoming Session of the Assembly.

"Harsher punishment will be stipulated in this bill for all those indulging in such malpractices," he said. Coming down heavily on the UPA government, the Chief Minister termed the recent decision of the Centre to enhance the number of subsidised LPG cylinders from nine to 12 as a "political stunt".

He said that it was a "face saving" exercise of the Congress led UPA government. Questioning the motive behind the decision, Badal said there was no cap on such cylinders in the past, but in an anti-people move the Union government had imposed this limit and now keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, it was trying to befool people by increasing the subsidised cylinders.

However, he said that the voters would not get swayed away with such tantrums of the UPA and would teach a "befitting lesson" to the Congress in the coming polls.

When asked to comment on the admission of Devinder Pal Bhullar`s mercy plea by the Apex Court, the Chief Minister described it as a "welcome step".

He said that there was hardly any need for another probe into the killings of Sikhs in 1984 as several earlier inquiries into the matter had already indicted the Congress leaders for their dubious role in the matter.

"Any further inquiry will aggravate the woes of the victims of this massacre by delaying the process of justice for another couple of years," he said.

When asked about the resignation of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, the veteran Akali leader said though it was an internal matter of the party but frustrated by the "Modi wave" Congress leadership was sacrificing its Chief Ministers in the hope of getting votes.
"The responsibility of the debacle of the Congress in recently held polls in four states lies with top leadership including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, but Congress was making the Chief Ministers as scapegoats just to save the skin of Nehru-Gandhi scion," Badal alleged.
He said that the "crystal clear" verdict of the four states was in the favour of Modi and was against the Gandhi family.

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