Says CBI and ED probe or inquiry by sitting HC or SC judge should be held into the allegations
Also urge Governor to make AAP accountable for squandering public funds on holding session to further its political ends besides calling for discussion on real issues of Punjabis
Chandigarh ( Bindu Singh) : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) – Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislature party wings today urged Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit to save democracy by ordering a probe into allegations of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that its legislators were offered bribes of hundreds of crores of rupees to topple the government.
A delegation of the legislature wings led by SAD legislature party leader Manpreet Singh Ayali and including Dr Sukhwinder Kumar and Ganieve Kaur Majithia besides Nachhatar Pal from the BSP, also urged the Governor to hold AAP accountable for squandering public funds on a PR exercise aimed at furthering its party agenda at the cost of Punjabis besides advising the government to hold discussions on the real issues of Punjabis in the ongoing special session of the Vidhan Sabha.
Briefing newsmen on the issue, Manpreet Ayali said the AAP government was bent on violating parliamentary norms and abusing the mandate of Punjabis to further its political agenda. He said finance minister Harpal Cheema submitted a complaint to the State DGP claiming that its legislators were offered bribes of Rs 10 crore each to switch sides. “Even though the complaint was submitted on September 14, no one has been named in the case and no arrests have been made even after fifteen days”. Asserting that this reflected the incompetence of the State Police, Mr Ayali said the SAD-BSP delegation had urged the Governor to order a central probe by the CBI or ED into the allegations or direct the government to initiate a judicial probe into the case by a sitting judge of the High Court or Supreme Court. “This is also necessary as the mobile phones of the concerned legislators need to be seized and subjected to forensic examination”, he added.
The SAD legislators also urged the Punjab Governor to hold AAP accountable for politicizing the agenda of the Vidhan Sabha deliberately with the aim of seeking political mileage in the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. They said the entire cost of the session at the rate of Rs one crore per day should be billed to AAP. They also detailed how the confidence motion, for which there was no provision in the rules of procedure of the Vidhan Sabha, had been introduced without taking the approval of the Business Advisory Committee of the House.
The SAD-BSP legislators also asserted that the AAP government was abusing the mandate of Punjabis and urged the Governor to advise it to hold discussions on the real emergent issues of the State. They said chief minister Bhagwant Mann owed an explanation for publicly endorsing AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal’s view that water from the SYL canal in Punjab should be given to Haryana and Delhi. They said similarly the chief minister should tell why he had not protested against the Haryana government’s move to acquire land in Chandigarh for a new Vidhan Sabha building.
The delegation also urged that the government should discuss why it had failed to compensate farmers for crop losses, had not paid Rs 1,500 per acre incentive for direct seeding of paddy, and Rs 2,500 per acre incentive for not burning stubble besides not giving compensation for lumpy skin disease losses. It also demanded discussion on why victims of farmer suicides had not been given government jobs as promised.
The delegation also demanded the government clarify in the assembly why the Rs 1,000 per month allowance to women was not being given and why youth who were protesting for their rights were being brutalized. Mr Manpreet Ayali gave the example of Kejriwal’s self professed sister Sippy Sharma being forced to climb a water tank to demand justice.
They said a discussion was also needed on law and order, corruption charges against cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari, drug overdose deaths, liquor scam of Rs 500 crore and illegal mining which had even compromised national security.
