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Jang-e-Azadi memorial probe not an attack on media: Bhagwant Mann
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann has said vigilance bureau calling an influential person for swindling funds in the Jang-e-Azadi memorial building was not attack on the media
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday vowed to expose every person involved in the embezzlement of public money. In a statement issued here today, the CM said that the state vigilance bureau is calling an influential person for swindling funds in the Jang-e-Azadi memorial building and he fails to understand how this investigation is an attack on the media.
Mann’s statement comes a day after Ajit Group editor-in-chief Barjinder Singh Hamdard skipped VB summons regarding a probe into the alleged misuse of funds during the execution of ₹315-crore memorial at Kartarpur in Jalandhar. This is the second time that he skipped to appear before the VB in a fortnight.
In the summons issued on June 10, the VB had asked Hamdard to appear in person on June 16, along with a reply to a 17-point questionnaire sent to him by the probe agency.
Hamdard -- who was instrumental in the conception and construction of the project since 2012 and quit as member secretary of the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial Foundation and as its managing committee president on April 10 -- sent a reply to the posers through his manager to the VB’s Jalandhar office.
Mann said that it is a matter of accountability of ₹200 crore used for the construction of a memorial in the name of great martyrs.
“Were the ₹200 crore sanctioned in the name of the media? What does the newspaper have to do with this? I will not stop till every single penny of Punjab’s people is accounted for. Be it “humdard”, sirdard or bedard - everyone will be exposed,” he said.
Mann categorically said that he was not amongst those who touched Hamdard’s feet to save their skins, and he will ensure accountability for the single penny spent from the public exchequer.
Meanwhile, while addressing a gathering in Chandigarh during a function to hand over job letters to 401 clerks and 17 junior engineers, the chief minister once again slammed the Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal for calling him ‘mad’, alleging that, unlike Sukhbir, he was not ‘plundering the public wealth’ of Punjab. .” It was the second time Mann slammed Badal for his remarks against him.
Addressing a gathering of the newly recruited employees in the local bodies department, the CM said he was insane because he has a passion for giving jobs to the state’s youth, improving government schools, opening mohalla clinics and giving free electricity. Mann said the state government has in around one year handed over 29,684 government jobs to the youth of the state and more such employment opportunities are in the pipeline.
The chief minister said that while he has dedicated his life to the people of the state, these leaders had made tireless efforts only for the sake of their families. He said that these leaders promoted their progeny too at the cost of the state.
