Punjab Cabinet Ministers on Monday issued separate statements lashing out at the opposition parties, including SAD and AAP, for scoring brownie points on an “unfortunate” hooch tragedy.
Coming all out to defend the Congress Government in the matter of spurious liquor tragedy that sniffed out more than hundred lives, Cabinet Ministers — Sunder Sham Arora, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Bharat Bhudhan Ashu, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, and Aruna Chaudhary — launched a scathing attack on the Akali Dal over its series of allegations against the Congress leaders’ involvement while raking the issues of sacrilege and Akalis’ alleged involvement in drug trade.
“This is not the time to derive mileage and score political brownie points instead the occasion demands that all political parties come together on a single platform and present a united front,” said the state Industries and Commerce Minister Arora. “At this calamitous time, the Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s recent statement, accusing the Congress Government of cover-up to save the skin of ruling party legislators, is in very bad taste and smacks of Akalis’ eagerness to settle political scores to regain their lost ground,” said Arora pointing that seven excise and six police officials have already been suspended in the case.
Arora said that 88 persons from Ferozepur, Mansa, Muktsar, and Patiala districts have been nabbed; 7420 litres ‘lahan’, other chemicals and 1212 bottles of illicit liquor have been seized by the State Police and raids are being conducted at industrial units across the State.
“How come the Akalis developed sudden love for the people of Punjab whereas during their previous tenure, they themselves were involved neck deep in the drug trade and ex-Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was hand in glove with smugglers who were out to ruin the youth of Punjab…The sacrilege cases, the firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, all are clear cut proof of treachery committed by the Akalis with the people of Punjab and now the Akalis pointing out fingers at the Congress Government can very well be termed as the case of ‘pot calling the kettle black’,” he said while advising the Akalis to desist from playing negative politics over the deaths of innocents in the hooch tragedy.
Asking SAD president Sukhbir Badal to stop shedding crocodile tears, Health Minister Balbir Sidhu said that the SAD president seems to be suffering from selective amnesia while asking the Chief Minister to step down owning moral responsibility for spurious liquor tragedy.
Lambasting at the Akalis for their dubious role for blatantly accusing Capt Amarinder Government for hooch tragedy, the Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi said that it was nothing but pot calling the kettle black as similar incidents had occurred in 2012 and 2016 in Gurdaspur and Batala respectively during their regime. “These tragedies too claimed several lives during SAD-BJP alliance government,” he said, adding that in Batala case, neither any FIR was registered nor any action taken against the main accused.
Describing hooch tragedy unfortunate, Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Aruna Chaudhary said that Punjab Police is very much capable to crack down the entire case. “Chief Minister has already ordered suspension of seven excise officials and six policemen with immediate effect and initiated an inquiry against them besides giving strict orders to state police to bring the guilty to justice…The government has also directed the police to launch statewide crackdown on spurious liquor manufacturing units that may be operating in the State and so far conducted more than 100 raids throughout the state,” she said.
ROOTS OF HOOCH TRAGEDY LEAD TO CMO: SAD
Alleging that the Congress Government had gone into panic mode as the roots of hooch tragedy led to the Chief Minister’s Office, SAD on Monday said that was why the “sycophant” Ministers had been roped in to cover up the sins of the Congress party and its legislators. SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema, reacting to the commenting Cabinet Ministers’ statements on hooch tragedy, said that the parroting of old lies indicated that Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his coterie had become jittery that given the scale of human tragedy, an independent inquiry by a sitting judge of the High Court or the CBI would nail them.
“This is why four Ministers have been put into service to launch a false, baseless and politically motivated counterattack on SAD instead of taking any effort to nab the Congress legislators and distillery owners associated with the Congress party who are responsible for the murder of nearly 150 persons,” he said.
Stating that SAD would not rest till justice was done to victims of “biggest hooch tragedy in the history of the State”, Cheema said: “No amount of damage control by even the entire Cabinet can save Congressmen who have played with the lives of innocent people by supplying poisonous alcohol to them.”
SAD leader asked the four Ministers to tell Punjabis why the Congress Government did not take action against two Congress legislators who were behind the illegal distillery-cum-bottling plant unearthed in Patiala. “If stern action had been taken against the legislators then, 150 lives would have been saved. Instead of doing this, the government is still trying to protect the MLAs by refusing to transfer files of the case to the Enforcement Directorate,” he said.
Cheema also asked the four Ministers to tell people why the government was shielding four Congress MLAs of Majha region who had been charged with distributing spurious liquor by hooch tragedy victim families. “Similarly, the Ministers should explain why they had accused a former chief secretary of misbehaviour when the latter accused them of being responsible for loss of excise revenue and then affected a compromise with him,” he asked.
“Doesn’t this prove that you all are complicit in the Rs 5,600 crore excise loss as well as the deaths of 150 persons who died because you failed to take action against Congressmen and distilleries engaged in sale of illegal liquor and smuggling of spirit respectively?” asked Cheema.
HOW COULD POLICE BE EXPECTED TO CONDUCT FREE AND FAIR INQUIRY AGAINST POWERFUL POLITICIANS: AAP
Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab unit on Monday said the Congress Government during its three and half years tenure had done nothing, except putting every scam under wraps. “Beginning from the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Behbal Kalan-Kotkapura shooting incidents, the Chief Minister has done nothing but formed a Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to hush-hush the multi-crore scams, allegedly involving who’s who of his Ministers and MLAs, while upright officers, who exhibited seriousness to take the investigations to conclusive ends, were being targeted or transferred, while the SITs set up by him has proved to be mere ‘clean chit’ issuing teams by far,” said senior leader and Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema.
Taking a swipe at Capt Amarinder, Cheema said that while high-level SITs were constituted to investigate into liquor mafia, seed scam, Batala explosives factory case, drug trafficking, Khanna-Rajpura-Ghanaur illegal liquor factories and countless others, “the investigating teams have pointed fingers at the who’s who of the ruling government, but to no consequence”. Cheema demanded that spurious liquor case should be investigated by a sitting High Court judge or the CBI, as the state police had proved a complete failure to conduct a free and fair investigation and bring the powerful politicians involved in all kinds of mafia and eating out the vitals of the state, to justice.
SAD SEEKS DHILLON’S ARREST FOR PATRONIZING ILLEGAL LIQUOR SALE, SAND MAFIA
Shiromani Akali Dal treasurer and Dera Bassi MLA NK Sharma has demanded immediate arrest of Congress leader Deepinder Singh Dhillon for patronizing illegal liquor sale and sand mining mafia in the assembly segment. Sharma said that he has submitted a representation informing about large scale sale of illegal liquor going on unabated in Dera Bassi area including Zirakpur and Lalru. “Now again, sale of illegal liquor is going on unabated as Dhillon is patronizing this illegal trade. Main kingpin of this racket is Bittu Jalwera, who is Dhillom’s right hand man and was active in seeking votes for Dhillon during 2017 assembly elections and now recently-held Block Samiti elections,” he alleged.
BJP HOLDS CONG GOVT RESPONSIBLE
BJP’s national secretary Tarun Chugh slammed the Congress Government in the State, holding it responsible for the tragedy. Chugh sought a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court into the case while rejecting the magisterial inquiry ordered by the State Government. He also met families of the victims in Batala. Lambasting the state government, the BJP leader said that the tragedy has “exposed” the anti-drug drive of the state government.
YAD ACTIVISTS STAGE DHARNA
Activists of the SAD’s Youth Akali Dal also staged a dharna in Tarn Taran against the government. Led by YAD chief Parambans Singh Romana, they alleged that some Congress MLAs were “patronising the illicit liquor trade”. Romana sought the registration of an FIR against them and said the Shiromani Akali Dal will continue its protest till action was taken against the culprits.