Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa’s alleged shady land deals rocked the Vidhan Sabha on Thursday.
Training guns at the Congress and its chief, the ruling alliance accused Bajwa and other members of his family of buying panchayat lands at low prices. The Congress party, on the other hand, retorted by demanding the revival of Justice Kuldip Singh Committee for carrying out a time bound probe into such questionable land deals, and table the report in the next Budget session of the Assembly.
Refuting all the allegations on Bajwa and his family members as “baseless”, his wife and sitting Congress MlA Charanjit Kaur Bajwa maintained that she was ready any probe, including an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The issue was raised during the zero hour by SAD MlA and CPS Virsa Singh Valtoha questioning the manner in which Shamlat land was brought by Bajwas, when it cannot be sold or bought.
Valtoha alleged how Bajwa, his younger brother and Congress leader Fateh Jung Bajwa, Bajwa’s wife and his sister-in-law Hanila Bajwa bought Shamlat deh lands in five villages of Mohali district alone. Shamlat deh land is meant for common purposes or for the benefit of village community and not just common ownership. Pandemonium prevailed with both the ruling and the opposition legislators trying to put their point against each other. Despite Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal’s pleas to clam down, the two sides have heated exchanged.
leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar asserted that these are just accusations, but the allegations of setting up projects without environment clearances have been proved against the SAD MlA and chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) NK Sharma. “Why the action is not being taken against himIJ” he questioned.
Jakhar then demanded to revive the Justice Kuldeep Singh penal, set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to probe into the each and every name cropped in the shady land deals. Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia called into question how a company, with capital value of Rs one lakh, carried out and land deals worth crores of rupees. Maintaining that neither she noir any member of her family has done any wrong or are guilty, Charanjit Bajwa declared that she was ready for any inquiry. later, SAD MlA Inderbir Singh Bolaria too targeted Bajwa. He raised the issue of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s letter to Congress national president Sonia Gandhi against state party chief’s alleged terror links, which was denied by the Speaker.
Congress MlAs happy over land scam, Badals take a dig
Chandigarh: Taking a dig at the State Congress for rivalry within the party, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy Sukhbir Badal said that the faces of some of the legislators in the Opposition indicated that they too were happy with the surfacing of the scam, and raising of this issue in the Assembly. Badal said that there was a shine in the eyes of many Congress MlAs when the issue was raked up.
Sukhbir also asserted that faces of Congress legislators gave him confused signals on whether the issue, involving alleged shady land deals of party chief Partap Bajwa, was raised in the Assembly by them or the Akalis.
Mittal versus Kang over sand mining
The discussion on the issue of sand mining saw a verbal combat between Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal and Congress MlA Jagmohan Singh Kang. Responding to Kang’s allegations of supporting sand mafia, Mittal said that Kang is in mining business since 1990. Mittal alleged that he had registered cases of illegal mining against Kang and his brother. “All kothis constructed in 1990s in Chandigarh had used your constriction material,” Mittal added.