Opposition parties in Punjab — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — on Sunday rejected the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s decision to get the Rs 63 crore SC scholarship scam probed by the State Chief Secretary, demanding an investigation to be carried out by the central premier agency.

Asserting the probe by CS was nothing but an exercise to secure a clean chit for Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, the Akali Dal demanded a CBI probe into the entire matter, besides demanding a probe into the entire Rs 811 crore received from the Centre on account of the SC scholarship scheme, saying that the scope of the scam was much more than Rs 63 crore as per preliminary reports.

In the meantime, Dharamsot should be sacked and a criminal case should be registered against him besides a separate case under the Prevention of Atrocities Act for playing with the future of lakhs of Dalit students in the State,” said SAD leader and former minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal.

Grewal said that it was strange that the Chief Minister had faith in his Chief Secretary but did not have any faith in the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) who, as head of the SC, BC Welfare Department, had indicted the Minister after an exhaustive probe.

“Earlier, we have seen how civil servants were misused to give clean chits to politicians behind the Dussehra train tragedy and the Batala bomb blast. It seems the same script is being rewritten now. Only an independent inquiry can nail all the culprits and ensure a jail term for Sadhu Singh Dharamsot,” he said.

Accusing the Chief Minister of protecting and shielding Dharasmot, SAD leader said that the Government had decided to sit on the departmental probe and ordered another probe by the Chief Secretary to put the case in cold storage.

“We will not allow this injustice against Dalit students. We will launch an agitation to ensure Dharamsot is put behind bars and the money looted by him is recovered and handed back to SC students,” he declared.

Also rejecting the probe by the Chief Secretary, AAP’s Punjab unit demanded that the investigation should be carried out by CBI, under the supervision of the High Court judge.

“The Government has been trying to save its corrupt Minister and the process of getting a clean chit from the Chief Secretary has started. This is a double deception with Punjab, especially with several Dalit students whose bright future has been scuttled by this corrupt gang in conjunction with the education mafia,” said AAP MLA and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema.

Raising a question over the decision, Cheema dubbed it as “a futile exercise aimed at diverting the people’s attention”.

“If the Chief Minister does not trust the detailed investigation done by one of his Additional Chief Secretaries with documentary evidence, the investigation of this scam should have been handed over to the CBI or any central agency under the supervision of a sitting judge of the High Court. But due to the reasons best known to him, instead of sending Dharamsot to jail, the Chief Minister wants to retain him in his Cabinet despite the fact that many senior Congress leaders are demanding to sack the corrupt Minister,” he added.

Besides, Cheema also demanded that the scope of investigation of scam in this post matric scholarship scheme should be extended to the year 2012-13 because more than Rs 1,200 crores in this scheme has been embezzled during the regime of previous Akali BJP government, which has been suppressed by this corrupt gang with high-level collusion.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for calling AAP a ‘rouge party’, Cheema said that the Aam Aadmi Party will go to any extent to protect the interests of the people of Punjab as well as the country. “AAP, which is a result of mass movement against the corrupt system, does not need any certificate from a mendacious king like Amarinder Singh,” he said.