Hitting out at the Badals over the alleged multi-crore foodgrains scam, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday vowed to recover every penny of the public money from the “corrupt Badal & Company” once the party came back to power in the State. The former Chief Minister promised a thorough physical verification of the State’s food grain stocks.
“We will make sure that the money stolen by the Badals is brought back into the State’s coffers once we are back in reign. We shall not hesitate to initiate legal action against the Badals,” he said.
The senior Congress leader alleged that the Badals have been looting the State ever since they formed the Government in 2007 and the scam was their “crowning glory” in corruption, while condemning the SAD Government's attempts to cover up the scandal by converting it into a loan.
He said that when he took over the reins of the state from the Akalis in 2002, Punjab's outstanding central debt amounted to `4,500 crore. It is only since the Badals came back to power that the state has again been plunged into an intense debt trap, he said.
The state party chief claimed that with the latest Rs 30,000 crore loan from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restructured, the State will reel under a debt burden of Rs 50,000 crore for the next 20 years.
“I will not allow the Badals to get away with it. Nobody involved in the scam will be spared at any cost. The people of Punjab cannot be made to pay for the ill-doings of Badals,” Capt Amarinder said.
In its complaint to the Vigilance Bureau in April this year, the state Congress had pointed out that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the RBI had prima facie concluded that the disappearance of stocks worth `32,000 crore was a case of misappropriation of Central funds and diversion of food grain.
Of the 3,319 trucks that were claimed to have been used by the state procurement agencies for transporting the grains, CAG had, in a random check of their registration numbers, found that 87 vehicles were actually two-wheelers and cars, he said.
The remaining could not be traced, clearly indicating that the grain never reached the stores but in fact disappeared from the market itself, party spokesperson Sunil Jhakar had said.
Punjab Congress has already demanded a probe into the matter by either the Central Bureau of Investigation or a High Court judge.