india

Updated: Dec 03, 2018 18:41 IST

In a Cabinet meeting held in Chandigarh today, the Punjab government steered clear of discussing the Navjot Singh Sidhu’s contentious ‘Rahul my captain’ remark while taking a series of wide-ranging decisions.

The Punjab Cabinet cleared the proposal to set up an international airport at Halwara in Punjab’s Ludhiana district. The airport will be set up on 135 acres of land in coordination with the Airports Authority of India, sources said.

In keeping with the Kartarpur Corridor plans announced earlier by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Cabinet also passed the proposal to set up a Dera Baba Nanak Development Authority. It was also decided that the Punjab Assembly’s 2018 winter session will be held between December 13 and 15.

Among the other decisions taken today in the cabinet meeting were

Ministers Tript Rajinder Bajwa and Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi who had said Sidhu should step down and the issue will be raised in the cabinet meeting too did not bring it up. Two other ministers Sukhbinder Sarkaria and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had on Saturday demanded Sidhu’s resignation. The four ministers had on Sunday hit out at Sidhu and demanded that he apologise.

Sidhu, who is busy campaigning in Rajasthan, was not present at the meeting. According to a senior Congress leader, the party is trying to defuse the situation and raising it in the cabinet could have flared up the matter. When asked if he had been asked by the party high command to retract his statement and apologise to the CM, a defiant Sidhu on Monday said, “No. I have done nothing wrong.”

A cabinet minister said it was not fair to target Sidhu in his absence. “No minister raised it. And not a word was spoken on the matter,” he said.