'He should be tested for alcohol': Ravneet Singh Bittu hits out at Bhagwant Mann over deportee issue

Reacting to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann's attacks on the Centre over US deportee issue, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu slammed Mann with an "alcohol test" jibe.

Bittu hit out at Mann saying he had failed to take action against fraudulent agents and had neglected his responsibilities.

"If a plane lands in Punjab, how does it defame our state? He will not come to receive them (deportees). If he does, then the Chief Minister should be tested for alcohol," India Today quoted Bittu as saying.

Earlier on Saturday, Mann attacked the Centre over the landing of US planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a 'deportation centre'.

Referring to the illegal Indian immigrants being deported from the US, Bittu said that for two to six months, these youths had been travelling through "illegal donkey routes" and asked who had sent them to travel through such routes and what action the Mann government had taken against the fraudulent agents.

A second US flight carrying around 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Saturday night. On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian deportees had landed at Amritsar airport.

After immigration and background check, the deportees hailing from Punjab were taken to their homes in police vehicles at around 4.30 am on Sunday. The Haryana government also made transportation arrangements for the deportees from the state.

Many from the first batch of illegal immigrants who landed here on February 5, most of them from Punjab, said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families, but were duped by their agents. Their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.

Among the fresh batch of deportees, 65 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them are aged 18 to 30, as per PTI sources.

(With PTI inputs)