CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded registration of a FIR against food and civil supplies minister Lalchand Kataruchak and former rural development and panchayat minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal for colluding with each other to give a tainted DDPO additional charge of Additional deputy commissioner, Pathankot on the eve of his retirement with the sole motive of transferring 100 acres of mineral rich panchayati land to private persons for pecuniary gains.
Asserting that the two ministers could not get off the hook by transferring the entire blame to the retired official, the SAD president said “the ministers are the kingpins behind the transfer of panchayati land to private persons. We demand a CBI inquiry into the entire issue to determine the money trail as well as identify all those who were party to this corrupt act. The link between the two ministers and the ultimate beneficiaries who were given a benefit of crores of rupees should also be probed”, he added.
Stating that there could not be a bigger example of institutionalized corruption of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and its officials, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “while one minister (Kataruchak) recommended giving additional charge of the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) to DDPO Kuldeep Singh, the other minister (Dhaliwal) passed the order to this effect”. He said the very fact that the official – Kuldeep Singh was promoted from BDPO to DDPO on February 21 and given charge as ADC for four days till his retirement on February 27 points out to a well planned conspiracy to defraud the panchayat of its land.
Questioning chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s silence on this issue, Mr Badal said “earlier also you have defended Kataruchak who was accused of sexual misconduct with proof of the same being verified by the police authorities. Now if you remain silent on this issue which is a clear case of corruption and illegal mining it will be presumed that you are also in cohorts with the accused”. Mr Badal also asked the chief minister to tell Punjabis why he had consistently defended Kataruchak. “What hold does his immoral minister have over you that you find yourself incapable of sacking him from your cabinet?” he asked.
Mr Badal also disclosed that it was this nexus of AAP ministers with the mining mafia that sand prices had more than doubled during the AAP regime. “The chief minister is fond of securing cheap publicity by claiming reduction in the sand rates when in reality they have doubled ever since the AAP government took over the reins of the State. He said the same was the case vis a vis the drug menace. “Drug trafficking has increased manifold during the AAP regime even as the government makes empty claims of having stemmed it”, Mr Badal added.