- There was allegedly an argument between the wife of the local MLA and DC Faridkot at officers club during dinner.
- Neither DC Faridkot Ruhee Dugg nor local MLA Gurdit Singh Sekhon were available for comments despite calls on their cell phones.
Faridkot: Baba Farid Mela on Thursday left a dented image of the district administration due to the poor arrangements during the Satinder Sartaj show.
Even Beant Kaur, wife of the local MLA Gurdit Singh Sekhon allegedly left the venue out of protest when she, accompanied by some other women did not find charis.
“The wife of the local MLA Gurdit Singh Sekhon visited the place accompanied by some other women, but she left the venue out of protest when they did not get the seats.Actually, she was accompanied by some other women, but when she visited the venue, she asked for the chairs. She was offered one prominent chair, but she demanded the chairs for the women accompanied by her for which she was not obliged. So she left the venue out of protest,” claimed a source.
“Later on, she reached the officers club where the officers and others had to dine at about 11 PM.Then she had allegedly had arguments with the DC Faridkot Ruhee Dugg saying that she was humiliated at the Satinder Sartaj Programme as she was not given chairs,” claimed the sources.
But all the information is based on reliable sources,who confirm it happened,but Punjab Tribune independently could not verify the incident.
But Ruhee Dugg,DC Faridkot did not respond to the call made on her cell phone.
Gurdit Singh Sekhon,MLA Faridkot could not be contacted despite two attempts on his cell phone at the interval of about an hour.
“The MLA is sitting in the basketball court,” the attendant said on his phone.
The passes to the show were allegedly sold
The sources claimed that there were three kinds of the passes, white, green and yellow meant to enter the venue.But instead, they were allegedly sold at much higher prices and the programme turned out to be for the VVIP programme.
“We had come from about 40 KMs to see the Mela and wanted to see the Satinder Sartaj Programme. But almost all the spectators were allowed on some passes allegedly sold at much higher prices.Even the police did not allow us to reach near the venue.Even at about 200 meters distance, the police cane charged the people to shoo them away.We are disappointed that the Faridkot people treated us like that,” said a man in a video clip on internet.
'The passes were given in lieu of some contribution of money to the wealthy people.They allegedly bought the passes in connivance with the authorities and common people had to face humiliation,’ claimed a local journalist.
The venue of mela was shut at about 3 PM, the stall owners and others cried for the financial loss
“The district administration vacated the place because of the programme of the Soofi Singer at about 3 PM on Thursday.We have paid about Rs 20 lakh to the government for our swings,cradles and other entertainment services besides Rs 4 lakh of transportation charges. But as the administration forced the people to vacate the place, we had to face huge financial loss,” said a man who claimed to be the contractor of the Swings/tower rides.
“This is the worst year of the Baba Farid Mela when the people were treated like that.The district administration forced all the people out of the Mela place on the grain market Faridkot, along with Ferozpur road.All the people who had put up stalls, shops and other entertainment services on higher rentals badly affected because of that.Even the people had to go back without enjoying the mela,” claimed a local wishing not to be named out of backlash.
Even the local web reporters were careful to report the facts because of the special drive of the government against “so called”(Naam Nihad) reporters, a term conveniently coined by the AAP government to snub the web and online reporters.
According to the press note of the DPRO Faridkot, the people enjoyed a lot of the programme which was attended by all senior politicians and officers.
DC Faridkot Ruhee Dugg thanked all the guests and the people.