Punjab Assembly pays tribute to Vajpayee, Chatterjee

Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday led the Vidhan Sabha in paying homage to eminent personalities, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee, who passed away since the last session of Assembly.

The House, at the outset of its monsoon session, paid respects to freedom fighters, political and other eminent personalities, as well as soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the line of their duty.

The members observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls during the obituary references.

Besides Vajpayee and Somnath, the House paid tributes to former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Balramji Dass Tandon, former Minister Surinder Singla, former legislators Joginder Nath and Kuldeep Singh Wadala as well as noted journalist and writer Kuldip Nayar.

Speaker Rana Kanwarpal Singh proposed that homage be paid to all those prominent personalities who had passed away since the previous session.

After the obituary references to the 17 eminent personalities, he passed a resolution for conveying the condolences of the House to their respective families. The resolution was passed by a voice vote.

On the request of Sunam legislator and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Aman Arora, name of a freedom fighter from Sangrur district Jangir Singh Sutantar was included in the list of obituaries.

The Speaker also consented to include the name of Tarlok Singh, a victim of hate crime in the US, in the list on the intervention of Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.

The Speaker also acceded to the request of Majitha legislator Bikram Singh Majithia to pay tributes to all those soldiers of the India Army and paramilitary forces, who sacrificed their lives to safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of the country.