BJP wants Bansal to go

An enquiry report on fraudulent allotments of 2,500 shopping booths in Chandigarh has indicted union minister for parliamentary affairs Pawan Kumar Bansal. HT reports.

An enquiry report on fraudulent allotments of 2,500 shopping booths in Chandigarh has indicted union minister for parliamentary affairs Pawan Kumar Bansal.

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Bansal is alleged to have used his position as union minister and before that as MP to influence the deals concerning the allotments.

The BJP is seeking his resignation.

Other Congress leaders in the city and top officials in the police and estate office also find their names in the 115-page report by Preetdev Singh Shergill, former additional deputy commissioner of Chandigarh, who has also recommended an inquiry by the CBI. Bansal told the media that he was unaware of any inquiry.

“Once I go through the details of the report, I will make a comment... I am open to scrutiny.” “After reports in some of newspapers today, the central minister should resign from his post, and the case should go to the CBI,” president of the Chandigarh unit of the BJP Sanjay Tandon said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

“Seal all records related to the allotment and the report.”

In March 2010, UT administrator Shivraj V Patil had appointed the then ADC to investigate the complaints. Shergill found the mafia got 90 booths fraudulently allotted through illegal exchange of money between officers in the estate office and the police.

Bansal, Union Territory (UT) adviser Pradip Mehra, former mayor Pradeep Chhabra, former deputy commissioner RK Rao, three deputy SPs, and eight senior people in the UT estate office face a barrage of accusations over the allotment scam between 2002 and 2008.