The ruling and opposition benches on Friday sparred over sand mining in Punjab after mines and geology minister Harjot Singh Bains stated that no government in the past and their MLAs and ministers left any stone unturned to make money out of this business.
Replying to a question by Congress MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, the minister said Mann government was committed to take action against those who minted money from sand mining and the action has started with the arrest of former Congress MLA.
To this, leader of opposition Partap Bajwa got up and asked the minister not to give sweeping statements.
“If you have facts, interrogate it from tomorrow and start from Captain Amarinder Singh. Let us see how much political will you have. You are accusing Captain Amarinder of having the complete list. You should get hold of Amarinder first,” said the Congress MLA.
Bajwa was referring to a statement by AAP member in the house, who while having a supplementary question on the issue, cited a record of the assembly in which Captain Amarinder, while serving as chief minister, had stated that he has a list of those leaders involved in the sand mining.
Replying to Bajwa, Bains said that he knew leader of opposition’s special love for Amarinder. “But everything has a system. I will give details of everything in post-budget speech,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}Replying to Bajwa, Bains said that he knew leader of opposition’s special love for Amarinder. “But everything has a system. I will give details of everything in post-budget speech,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}Bajwa said he would have similar love for the minister as well if his statement about involvement of all MLAs is found to be having no base.
SAD MLA Manpreet Ayali also demanded an impartial probe into the charges by the minister. “But please don’t blame every one of us,” he said.
Sarkaria targeted the minister stating that the government could only earn ₹30 crore from mining in the last three months. He said the AAP supremo repeatedly claimed during the electioneering that sand mining would fetch ₹28,000 crore.
In another question, Amritsar (North) MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh asked if the Government Circuit House in Amritsar was given on lease to a political family. He was pointing towards former minister OP Soni and son Sandeep Soni citing that Sandeep was director in one of the companies that took the circuit house on lease.
To this, finance minister Harpal Cheema replied that the files related to the case don’t have the fact of any political association with the project in question. “We will get the matter probed, ” said Cheema. Kunwar demanded a vigilance probe into the episode.