SAD urges Governor to direct Congress govt to order CBI probe into Rs 4100 crore Power Scams
Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday urged Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore to direct the Congress government to recommend a CBI inquiry to probe the nexus between Ministers, Congress leaders and officials in the Rs 4100 crore power scams which had occurred in the State recently.
A high level delegation of the SAD which was led by its President Sukhbir Singh Badal, also urged the Governor to direct the State government to dismiss all Ministers and officials who had dealt with relevant files which had caused an Rs 4100 crore loss to the State. While demanding sealing of the relevant files to ensure they were not tampered, the SAD delegation urged the Governor to ask the government to pay the additional power tariff hike due to the scams from the treasury instead of charging the people for the same. The delegation said the additional burden should be realized from those found guilty after due inquiry.
Briefing the Governor, the SAD President said in both the power scams the State had suffered a loss of Rs 4100 crore due to willful connivance and large scale corruption by Congress leaders, Ministers, high officials and private sector companies. Explaining the modus operandi, Mr Sukhbir Badal said the State had deliberately lost important cases in the court and Tribunal after hefty amounts had been taken by certain persons from private companies. He said this was achieved by concealing important information from the courts and misrepresenting facts to benefit private players.
Giving further details, delegation members Balwinder Singh Bhundur and Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said in the case of coal washing charges which the State had lost forcing it to pay Rs 1400 crore immediately and Rs 1100 crore soon, the erstwhile SAD-BJP government had clarified to the Rajpura thermal plant management that washing of coal was to be arranged by the successful bidder. The leaders said once contractual obligations started the private player started claiming costs of washing coal which were rejected. “These claims were even rejected at the level of PSERC and even the central authority APTEL during SAD-BJP tenure”.
They said however after the Congress government came into being it adopted a dishonest approach in the Supreme Court stating falsely that there was no methodology to measure the calorific value of coal at the project site. “This was a blatant lie as para 68 of the Supreme Court judgement of 2017 in Nabha Powers Limited versus PSPCL clearly states that calorific value of coal should have been measured at the project site. It also stated that the plea of PSPCL that it did not have any methodology to measure calorific value at the project site was belied by sample reports of different financial years which referred to joint sampling and testing. The court even castigated PSPCL for this bald denial”.
Mr Bikram Singh Majithia and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema detailed that in the case of judgment of an Arbitral Tribunal related to charges of a coal company, it was revealed during a hearing in the high court that the Congress government did not challenge the award which granted Rs 1602 crore to a coal company for two and a half years. They said despite not challenging the award of the Tribunal the State continued to attend the proceedings of the Tribunal. “This itself proves that the Congress government was playing a fixed match with the coal company”, the leaders added. https://www.ptcnews.tv/sukhbir-singh-badal-harsimrat-kaur-badal-greetings-on-72nd-army-day-en/
Stating that underhand deals executed by State players was the real reason for the recent power hikes, the SAD President said the consumer had been burdened by an additional Rs 22,000 crore in the last three years of Congress tenure. Mr Sukhbir Badal later told newsmen that the party would exercise its option to approach the high court in case it did not get justice in the matter.
Other members of the delegation included Charanjit Singh Atwal, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Surjit Singh Rakhra and Baldev Singh Mann. -PTC News
