Demand For Declaring Batala A District Under Consideration: Amarinder Singh

In a letter to the chief minister, the two ministers had demanded that Batala should be announced as the 24th district of Punjab.

Two days after his two dissident ministerial colleagues demanded declaration of Batala as a new district of Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday took a swipe at them, saying the issue was already under consideration and a final decision would be taken after due consideration of various issues involved. Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who were among the four ministers who raised a banner of revolt against Amarinder Singh, on Saturday had sought a meeting with him over the creation of Batala as a new district of the state. In a letter to the chief minister, the two ministers had demanded that Batala should be announced as the 24th district of Punjab. At present, Batala is part of Gurdaspur district. In response to the demand raised by Bajwa and Randhawa, the chief minister on Monday said he had received a similar representation from another Congress leader last month and was looking into the matter.