Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today welcomed the Uttar Pradesh IAS officer Durga Sakti Nagpal to Punjab if she wants to return to her native state.
"If she (Durga) wants to come to Punjab she is most welcome... She went from Punjab," Badal told media on the sidelines of anointing his new media adviser Jangveer Singh here today at the civil secretariat.
"She is most welcome to Punjab," he repeated while adding that "an officer should always do good job."
Nagpal, a native of Mohali, is in news for her crack down on sand mining mafia in Uttar Pardesh and subsequent action by the government of that state.
He ruled out any illegal mining taking place in Punjab.
"Our government is stern against illegal mining and if any report comes about it, proper action is immediately taken against the persons involved," he said.
He lambasted the Centre for being the "most unstable and indecisive government."
"Everyone knows that the present government can't take any decision," he said referring violation of ceasefire along LOC by Pakistan.
"This government can't do anything," he added.
On the issue of possible displacement of Sikh farmers from Kutch in Gujarat, he said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had assured Punjab counterpart Parkash Singh Badal that no farmer would be displaced.
"Its a wrong propaganda done by some vested interests," he said.
He said that Badal had already spoken to Modi on the issue.
At present the matter of Sikh farmers in Kutch is subjudice, he said, adding that the Punjab government would fight the legal battle in the interests of Sikhs.
A report by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) published recently in a section of media had said the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government had "prima facie" discriminated against the state's 50,000-member Sikh community in Kutch by ordering them to sell their land and return to Punjab because they were not 'Gujaratis', citing the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948.
The commission has strongly disapproved of the Gujarat government's interpretation that only Gujarati farmers could own or buy land in the state under the Act.
