Believe it or not! Punjab Government transported food grains from mandis to godowns on motorbikes.
To prove this, Congress leaders on Monday produced a motorcycle with the registration number that was allegedly passed off as that of a truck to transport foodgrains—pointing at the alleged food scam.
Mocking the state government, senior Congress leader and Abohar MlA Sunil Jakhar, along with ClP leader Charanjit Singh Channi, rode the motorcycle to the Vidhan Sabha.
Citing the CAG report where it was said that “fake” vehicle numbers were mentioned, Jakhar and Channi produced the motorcycle with the number that had been shown as that of a truck — one of the 15 vehicles used to “transport” foodgrains.
Jakhar said that a total of 3,232 vehicles were shown to be hired to transport foodgrain to the godowns, but the CAG could verify only 87 of these vehicles, of which 15 are two-wheelers.
He claimed that Congress had traced many of these vehicles, some of which were motorcycles. “How huge foodgrain stocks can be moved on motorcycles,” quipped Jakhar.
“The motorcycle, I am riding today, is one such vehicle which the Akali government says that they lifted rice worth thousands of crore and transported it from mandis to godowns,” he said.
The MlAs also decided to donate the motorcycle to Akalis for the “tirath yatra”.
The motorcycle procured from Patiala will be displayed at Congress rallies, including the Chhappar rally in Sangrur. “Congress will put on display the motorcycles during our rallies in Punjab…We will expose their lie and highlight the scam in transportation of foodgrains on fake vehicles,” he said.
At the same time, the party demanded that the SAD-BJP government should also take up the issue of non-clearance of Cash Credit limit (CCl) for Punjab with the Centre. “Any delay will force the farmers to wait for months to get the payment of their paddy crop as its procurement was due shortly,” said Jakhar.
He said: “The paddy crop is due next week and the Centre has not yet cleared Cash Credit limit for Punjab. Farmers will have to wait for months to get payments of their produce. But the Punjab government is so insensitive that it is not bothered about the plight of the peasants.”
Jakhar said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should immediately take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “meet him and get the Cash Credit limit cleared”, while demanding that the Punjab government should give details of the paddy stocks.
“If the government is so sure and pure, why is it not getting a physical verification done (of paddy stock). There is a huge scam. We want a CBI inquiry into this, we want physical verification of the godowns to start immediately,” he said.