Akali Dal urges Governor to order probe into Punjab liquor policy
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Aug, 2022 10:40 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 31 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday urged the Governor to recommend CBI and ED probes into the alleged excise scam of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab.
Shiromani Akali Dal or me can never be brow beaten by such threats. We have faced political vendetta before but stood firm on our ideals and principles. We will never be cow downed by such tactics.#Summonpic.twitter.com/BZznYBYedz
It said the revamped excise policy of the state government was akin to the Delhi policy and that the same modus operandi was used to give control of the liquor trade to henchmen in return for kickbacks running into hundreds of crores.
A SAD delegation led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and handed over a memorandum stating that the Chief Minister and the Excise Minister have violated the provisions of the Official Secrets Act by making official files of the state available to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and MP Raghav Chadha, besides private persons.
It also listed that the Delhi Chief Secretary had in his report stated that the Delhi excise policy is a quid pro quo arrangement at the top level.
It said since the Punjab policy was a copy of the Delhi one, the role of the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, Chadha and the Punjab Excise Minister, and other private persons should be probed.
It said this case fell within the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act and a case should be registered in this regard also.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
India on Tuesday recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 per cent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 per cent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 per cent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.
Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
Several Supreme Court advocates on Monday claimed to have received an international call with a recorded message asking the apex court not to help the Central government by taking up a case connected with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are projected to poll 40 per cent and 36 per cent votes in Punjab, respectively, as per the ABP-CVOTER Battle for the States survey. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
