Shiromani Akali Dal accuses Punjab govt of renewing mining contracts of 2 sand mafia kingpins

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 17

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia today asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann why he was running away from explaining the renewal of mining contracts of two sand mining mafia kingpins within one month of their termination on charges of malpractices, even as he demanded the arrest of the mining director for making a mining policy which encouraged corruption.

Addressing a press conference here, Majithia said, “I asked some straight questions from the chief minister yesterday including the renewal of mining contracts to Rakesh Chaudhary and Ashok Chandak despite the fact that they had been terminated following registration of several cases, institution of a CBI inquiry and even illegalities mentioned by the Enforcement Directorate. Instead of answering these questions, the chief minister fielded his spokespersons to claim that one of the contractors – Rakesh Chaudhary had got a stay from the high court. This is no defence. If this was so, why was Chaudhary’s contract terminated in the first place? The government has not put the stay in the public realm and even if it is so it is guilty of misleading the court by hiding key facts including the four cases registered against Chaudhary, recovery charges of Rs 26 crore put against him and institution of CBI inquiry after he was accused of collecting ‘goonda’ tax”.

Majithia also took on Mining Director DPS Kharbanda for coming up with a new mining policy aimed at turning Punjab into a tax haven for black money. He alleged the new policy made by Kharbanda allowed entry of illegally mined sand from all neighbouring states into Punjab with the provision that the royalty for the same will be decided by the chief minister. “This provision is aimed at encouraging corruption, which it has with more than 2,000 truckers entering Punjab every day and submitting only a fraction of the official royalty to the Punjab government. The remaining amount is being pocketed by the Kattar Beimaan Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)”. He said Kharbanda’s arrest was necessary to trace the trail of money which would end at the doorsteps of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Terming it as ‘mother of all scams’, which he claimed was even bigger than the Delhi excise policy scam, Majithia showed receipts to prove how only half of the royalty of Rs 7 was being charged officially from inter-state vehicles bringing sand and gravel into Punjab. “This government has entered into an open alliance with the mining mafia and this is why it did not come out with a mining policy for so long. It is because of this that the chief minister is openly shielding the mining mafia”.

Majithia also questioned why the AAP government had flip flopped repeatedly on fixing pit head prices of sand. He said the AAP government first raised the price from Rs 5.50 per cubic feet fixed by the Congress government to Rs 9 per cubic feet in August and then reverted back to the old price recently. He said it was clear that this was done under a deal with the mining mafia and this aspect should also be probed along with all other issues by the CBI.  

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#Bhagwant Mann #Bikram Majithia #Illegal Mining #Shiromani Akali Dal