Chandigarh, 20 September(Wishav Warta): The leader of opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday accused Capt. Amarinder Singh led Congress government of violating the constitutional right of getting information regarding the findings of Justice Narang commission appointed to probe the irregularities of sand mining auction under the Right to Information Act 2005.
In a press statement, Khaira said that he applied for the information under RTI Act from the office of Chief Secretary of Punjab on August 14th but no information has been served till date. “As per the RTI Act guidelines, the information asked has to be given within the time span of 30 days from the date of applying. Capt. Amarinder Singh and his officers are making mockery of the law just to save corrupt and tainted minister who was clearly involved in the sand mining scam. If the LoP can’t get the information under the law what can a common man expect from the government?” Khaira asked.
The LoP said that Justice Narang had submitted the report to CM Amarinder Singh on August 10 suggesting the government to take action on the report within 2 weeks but even after 40 days of submission of report, no action has been taken as per the directions of the commission head. “The commission strongly recommended the re-auctioning of controversial sand mines including two in Saidpur and Mehadipur in Nawanshahr that were linked to Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjit Singh but rather than taking action on the report, the govt. preferred to push it under the carpet.” said Khaira.
Khaira said that even then the govt. was aware that nothing will come out in the bogus investigation as it was a tailor made exercise in accordance with the accused but it spent crores of rupees from public exchequer to save the skin of its corrupt minister. The government must dare to tell the people about the findings of Narang commission and also must make it public that how much money was paid and what facilities were provided to Justice Narang for inquiring the matter.
“It is hilarious to know that Justice Narang has given a clean chit to the minister in his report as “no monetary connection of the minister could be linked to the controversial sand mines”. Without inquiring the money trail, how can you find out that the 13 crores rupees deposited in govt. accounts by Amit Bahadur were not the hawala money of Rana Gurjit?” asked Khaira. He asked, as per the reports the commission has accused officials of the sand mining department for failing to checks the money transferred through RTGS by successful bidders then why no action has been taken against those officers.
Therefore Khaira urges the govt. to give him RTI information as soon as possible and also the govt. should make the report public and take appropriate action as per the findings of the bogus commission.
