हिंदी
(Bikram S Majtihia says half of Royalty collected by State from inter-State vehicles going to AAP)
(Also shows how sanding mining contracts of two mafia kingpins Rakesh Chaudhary and Ashok Chandak which had been terminated last year, were renewed by the AAP govt)
Chandigarh, February 16 2023
Former minister Bikram Singh Majithia today demanded a CBI inquiry against the ‘kattar imaandar’ Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for indulging in an Rs 400 crore scam in collection of royalty from vehicles carrying sand and gravel into Punjab besides reviving the contracts of two sand mining mafia kingpins associated with the previous Congress government one month after they had been terminated.
Read More – SAD, Congress, BJP and Governor are hand in glove to stop Bhagwant Mann: AAP
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”.
Mr Bikram Majithia also asserted that two mining mafia kingpins – Rakesh Chaudhary and Ashok Chandak – had been given charge of mining in Punjab in an underhand deal with the sole purpose of collecting money for AAP. He said after terminating Chaudary’s contract to mine sand in Mohali and Ropar districts on December 21 last year, the AAP government had renewed his contract on January 27 this year by awarding him the 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”. Mr Majithia said 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 before it was renewed on January 31 last month. He said Chandak had also been awarded the same sites of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Nawansheher from which he was mining sand earlier under the Congress regime.
Terming these twin scams as bigger than the Delhi excise policy scam, Mr 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”. The SAD leader said 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”. Mr Majithia said the AAP government had not allowed anything to come between this deal – not even a recovery notice of Rs 26 crore issued to Rakesh Chaudhary for indulging in illegal mining in Mohali and queries by the Enforcement Directorate demanding why criminal proceedings had not been launched against him.
Mr 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.
