Shiromani Akali Dal Senior Leader Bikram Singh Majithia has demanded a CBI investigation into the ‘kattarimaandar’ Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for engaging in a Rs 400 crore scam in the collection of royalty from vehicles carrying sand and gravel into Punjab, as well as reviving contracts of two sand mining mafia kingpins associated with the previous Congress government one month after they were terminated.
Rakesh Chaudhary and Ashok Chandak,the two mining mafia kingpins, allegedly, were given charge of mining in Punjab after Chaudary’s contract to mine sand in Mohali and Ropar districts was terminated on December 21 last year.
He said,“AAP government had renewed the Rakesh Chaudhary’s contract on January 27 this year by giving him same zones. This was done despite four cases being registered against Chaudhary in Ropar district besides a CBI inquiry marked by the high court after the ‘goonda tax’ levied by Chaudary was exposed by a chief judicial magistrate in a covert operation.”
Majithia said that the second contractor, Ashok Chandak, who was also extremely close to the Congress high command, had also been issued a termination of his contract on December 21 last year which was renewed on January 31 last month. Chandakwas awarded the same sites – Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Nawansheher from which he was mining sand earlier under the Congress regime.
Majithia exposed this scam and accused the ruling government of a underhand with the sole purpose of collecting money.Accusing the chief minister of heading the royalty scam in league with AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal, the SAD leader displayed receipts showing how only a fraction of the Rs 7 per cubic feet loyalty announced by the government on sand was collected by the State government, indicating underhand collection from inter-state vehicles by AAP. He also disclosed how the new mining policy had given the authority to fix royalty on inter-State vehicles to the chief minister and asserted that a majority of funds collected on this account were going directly to AAP instead of the State exchequer. “As many as 2,000 trucks filled with sand and gravel enter Punjab from neighbouring States every day. At least half of the loyalty due from them is being appropriated by AAP”.
Terming these twin scams bigger than the Delhi excise policy scam, Majithia said “It is now clear that the Mann Sarkar is a ‘Beiman Sarkar’ which is collecting money to fund election campaigns of AAP at the cost of Punjab’s exchequer. It was for this reason that the AAP government had deliberately not come out with a mining policy for the last eleven months. It wanted to do a deal with the mining mafia and has done this now”.
He further said the AAP government did not issue recovery notice of Rs 26 crore to Rakesh Chaudhary for indulging in illegal mining in Mohali and Enforcement Directorate queries demanding why criminal proceedings had not been launched against him.
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.
The SAD leader said rampant illegal mining under the AAP regime was affecting the State treasury as well as youth. “Illegal mining in river beds along the international border has also compromised national security as opined by the high court also”. He said the AAP government had failed to raise any funds from sand mining because it had struck deals with the mining mafia in spite of claims by Arvind Kejriwal that the AAP government would collect Rs 20,000 crore annually from sand mining alone.
