In less than a month of coming to power, the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab ordered a crack-down on illegal mining and declared it would go for e-auction of sand mines across the state.
The auction of 89 sand mines eventually took place on May 19 and 20. It helped the Punjab mining department generate revenue of nearly 1,000 crores, many of the bids reportedly 20 times higher than previous years.
But the government may not have been the only one to benefit from the e-auction.
Four of the 89 mines have gone to people linked to Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh. That includes the power minister's former cook, 36-year-old Amit Bahadur. His 26.5 crore bid won him a sand mine in Nawanshahr district, about 100 km from the state capital Chandigarh.
With declared assets of 169 crores, the minister, a sugar baron, was Punjab's richest candidate to contest the state election in February.
Bank statements and income tax returns filed by Amit Bahadur, however, suggest that his former employer's prosperity hadn't rubbed off on him yet. He had declared an annual income of Rs. 75,390 for 2014-15 and Rs. 92,679 for 2015-16. And on April 1 this year, he had a bank balance of just about Rs. 4,840.
Like Amit Bahadur, this former employee Kulwinder Paul Singh too was the highest bidder for the Mehdipur sand mine, this one in Nawanshahr district. He had bid 9.21 crores.
Amit Bahadur and Kulwinder Paul Singh were quick to distance themselves from the Power Minister and said they were no longer in his service. Their new employer, they insisted, was someone called Capt. JS Randhawa.
But Capt. Randhawa has been known to be close to the Power Minister and has even been his election agent in the assembly elections contested by the Congress minister.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered setting up of a one man judicial commission to probe the allegations of impropriety against Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh in the multi-crore sand mining auctions.
The inquiry would be conducted by Justice (Retd) J S Narang and he would submit his report within one month.
The minister has meanwhile offered to resign in order to ensure a free and fair investigation. The chief minister has, however, asked Rana Gurjit to continue till the outcome of the judicial probe.
Asserting his stand of zero tolerance to corruption, the chief minister announced his decision to set up a Judicial Commission after taking suo motu cognisance of media reports charging the minister with acquiring certain mines in the names of his company’s staff.
Though Rana Gurjit has denied any links of his company with the auctions and has categorically stated that his company has no stake in the sand mining business, the Chief Minister decided, in the interest of ethics and propriety, to get the matter probed at the highest level.
There was no question of allowing any deviation from his government’s avowed policy of providing clean governance, said Captain Amarinder, adding that he would take all steps to ensure that there is no violation of the trust reposed by the people of Punjab in his government and the Congress party.
