Badal meets PM, seeks increase in MSP for wheat

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) In the face of a Ropar court ordering the framing of charges against him in a case relating to disproportionate assets, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said there were no grounds for his quitting office.

''The framing of charges does not mean that I have been convicted in the case,'' Mr Badal told mediapersons.

''There has been a precedent in the past too,'' Mr Badal said and in this regard cited the case of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who did not quit even after having been chargesheeted in a criminal and a civil case.

In a major setback to the Chief Minister, the local court in Ropar called for framing charges against Mr Badal , his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Ms Surinder Kaur in the case.

Mr Badal said he was clean as he had been honestly filing his income tax returns.

Referring to the campaign of certain Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members for creating a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana, after dissociating with the SGPC, headquartered at Amritsar, Mr Badal said this could only be done after a majority resolution by the SGPC house to this effect.

Adoption of such resolution is must as per the Netur-Master Tara Singh pact signed long back in the 1950s, he added.

The move for creating a separate SGPC has backing of the ruling Congress in Haryana.

Replying to queries from the media, Mr Badal clarified that he did not say his government was committed to scrapping section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 He, however, added that he is bound to safeguard the interests of the state. The section five of the Act upholds the share of Haryana and Rajasthan in the Ravi-Beas rivers as was drawn in 2004.

Earlier, he called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. According to an offical release, Mr Badal urged Dr Singh to raise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the coming wheat harvest at Rs 900 from existing Rs 750 per quintal and set up a National Defence University in Patiala which has already been proposed by the State government.

During his brief interaction with Dr Singh the Chief Minister also urged the Central government to establish an international airport at Halwara near Ludhiana and to approve industrial incentives for border areas of Punjab on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.

Mr Badal earlier called on President APJ Abdul Kalam. Coming out of Rashtrapati Bhawan Mr Badal told mediapersons, ''It was my courtesy call after becoming the Chief Minister.'' Mr Badal also held a meeting with the BJP leaders including BJP President Rajnath Singh and Mr L K Advani. Also he called on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajapayee which was described by the Akali party sources as a' courtesy call' as part of Mr Badal's first visit to Delhi after becoming the Chief Minister.

UNI