DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday said he will welcome Gulab Chand Kataria, the new governor of the state, and will work in coordination with him. Kataria replaced Banwarilal Purohit as the Governor of Punjab as part of major gubernatorial appointments announced on Saturday night.

President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignation of Purohit as the Governor of Punjab and the administrator of Chandigarh. Purohit had tendered his resignation in February this year, Responding to a question on the new incumbent, Mann said that on Sunday morning, he spoke to Kataria, who told him that he would take oath on July 31.

"The president has appointed the new governor. We will welcome the new governor. We will work together," Mann told reporters here after flagging off 58 new ambulances.

The CM said he respected Purohit but was not happy with his visits to the border districts. Purohit tried to create an "atmosphere of conflict," he said.

He also took exception to Purohit's not granting sanction for a budget session earlier and declaring the session illegitimate.

Referring to his recent two-day visit to Jalandhar, Mann said the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police could not go with him as they were accompanying the Governor to his visits to the border districts.

"How could he run a parallel (government)," Mann said. He also said he had no role in Purohit's resignation.

On Friday, when Purohit was asked why he resigned, he said, "Maybe I thought that the CM did not like me."

Mann on Thursday had hit out at Purohit over his visits to border areas, saying that he should refrain from creating an "atmosphere of conflict" and instead inaugurate a seminar at

a university.

Purohit during his visits to the border districts had held meetings with villagers and officials of police and central agencies. He had visited Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts on Tuesday and Amritsar on Wednesday. It was his seventh such visit as governor.

Purohit and Mann earlier had been at loggerheads over various issues including the summing of Assembly Session and appointments of vice-chancellors of state-run universities.

Replying to a question about pending funds national health mission, Mann said a sum of around Rs 1,000 crore has been withheld by the Centre under the NHM to "stall" the pro-people initiatives of the state government.

He said that the state government has already moved the Supreme Court over the issue. "What kind of democracy is it where the non-BJP-ruled states are approaching the SC for getting their rights," he said, targeting the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. "We will fight to get our rights." Mann accused the BJP of misusing central agencies like ED, CBI and Income tax to target the opposition parties and filing fake

FIRs against them.

Mann said the INDIA bloc will hold a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Tuesday to raise the issue of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's declining health inside the Tihar Jail.

He said alliance leaders from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh will participate in it.

Asked whether his wife Gurpreet Kaur, who campaigned for the AAP in the Jalandhar West bypoll, may fight an election, Mann said participating in an election campaign does not mean that she will fight the poll.

The CM criticised the Union Budget presented last week, saying, "Punjab was not even mentioned in the budget." He said tax incentives for the industrial sector should be announced for Punjab, just as it has been done for Himachal Pradesh and Jammu

and Kashmir.

He also demanded the Centre give Punjab a special economic package.
(editor@dailyworld.in)