Hari Chand Arora
Chandigarh, June 17, 2018: A lawyer has approached the government urging it to restrain Minister for Local Government, Tourism and Culture Navjot Singh Sidhu from giving grants to religious shrines.
In a notice sent to Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar and Chief Secretary, Punjab Karan Avtar Singh, lawyer Hari Chand Arora referred to the news report captioned “Sidhu announces Rs. 15 Crore for facelift of Malerkotla shrine”. It mentioned that the minister visited Malerkotla on June 6, 2018 and announced a grant of Rs. 15 Crore for beautification of Hazrat Sheikh Dargah at Malerkotla.
Asking the government to restrain concerned department from releasing the abovesaid grant, Arora requested that appropriate directions be issued to Sidhu to remain within norms and discipline and not to issue grants for beautification of religious places, by mixing administration with religions.
Arora said that the ours being a secular country, the ministers therefore, cannot, merely by way of appeasement exercise, issue and release grants for any religious place, be it Gurudwara Sahib, Temple, Shrine or a Mosque.
Asking for reply to his notice within two weeks, Arora said that he would be left with no other alternative but to file a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek relief in this matter.
Arora maintained that the aforesaid news report showed that Sidhu handed over a cheque of Rs. 50 Lakh to Razia Sultana for Malerkotla city in accordance with the announcement made by him last year.
“In this regard, I may state that I had protested against the said grant also, and I received a letter from the Government that the aforesaid grant promised by the Cabinet Minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu, is not permissible under the rules,” said Arora.
However, it appeared Cabinet Minister has no regard for the norms or for the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India, added Arora.