A day after his deputy son Sukhbir Badal demanded an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court Judge into Robert Vadra’s controversial land deals in Haryana, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday joined the chorus.
“This (Vadra-DlF land deals) is in front of you. let there be an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge,” said Badal reacting on the allegations leveled by Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Vadra-DlF deals. Congress has carried out number of inquiries against us, this should also be inquired, he added. Reacting on the Union Minister Manish Tewari’s statement that a team from Union Environment Ministry will look into the reports of illegal sand mining in Punjab, Badal rubbished the charges saying that there was no illegal sand mining taking place in the State.
“If Centre wants to look into illegal sand mining, we have no objection. But there is no illegal sand mining taking place in Punjab,” he asserted. Badal alleged that all Congress Ministers from Punjab were busy in finding faults with the State Government even in little things. “None of them have brought a big project for the state. No Minister can claim of giving Punjab any big project,” he added.
lashing out at ludhiana MP, Badal said that Tewari never played any “positive” role in the development of Punjab. “There is no positive role played by Manish Tewari for Punjab. One should bring funds from the Centre for the development of the State,” he said. Tewari, a day before, had stated that he had submitted a detailed memorandum to Union Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan listing the “rampant loot” of sand in Punjab, and the Minister in turn has assured of sending a central team to look into the allegations of illegal sand mining.
Asked about Punjab Congress’ strategy of disrupting his Sangat Darshan programmes, Badal said that it was the lone reason of Congress poor performance across the country. “They don’t understand people’s woes, their problems. Ministers, legislators can directly approach the Government, but to understand people’s problems and listen their grievances, we have to conduct these programmes. And I do not understand what’s Congress’ problem in this,” he added.
On the Congress-led UPA Government’s much-hyped Food Security Bill, Badal said that the Centre had “copied” the state's Atta-Dal scheme. Badal also lashed out at the Centre for not disbursing enough funds for the State's ambitious crop diversification programme.