M A I N   N E W S

INLD-BJP ties touch new low
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 21 — The relations between the alliance partners, the Indian National Lok Dal and the BJP, in Haryana touched a new low today when the leader of the BJP Legislature Party, Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar, levelled corruption charges against the first family of the state and demanded inquiries by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department into the assets acquired by it.

For Mr Gujjar, who held a no-holds-barred press conference here, it was, in fact, tit for tat. Earlier the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau had served notice on Mr Gujjar accusing him of having acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Giving details of two Delhi properties, Mr Gujjar said these properties, worth crores of rupees, had changed hands recently. Though he did not specifically mentioned the names of the purchasers, he left no one in doubt that he was suspecting the involvement of the family of the Haryana Chief Minister and INLD President, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, in the deal.

He said the CBI should probe who had purchased these properties and in whose names. The Income Tax Department should ask the purchasers to explain the sources of their funds. He said a house (kothi no. 1, street no. 1) of 400 sq yd in Shantiniketan of Delhi was purchased for Rs 4 crore. Another plot (no. 20, lane no. 5) of 600 sq yd, the price of which was not known, was also purchased in the same locality. Now a two-storeyed house had come up on the plot.

Mr Gujjar also alleged a land scandal in Gurgaon district. About 30 acres were acquired by HUDA in Salokhra village in 1993-94. Before compensation for the land could be awarded, the owners obtained a stay order from a court. The BJP leader said the court order was in force still now. Recently, a leading builder entered into an agreement with the owners for the purchase of their land, which was under acquisition, because the builder had been given an assurance by the Chautala government that the land would be released from the acquisition proceedings.

The BJP leader alleged that the government had virtually forced the public sector undertaking, Haryana Minerals Limited (HML), to surrender 12 of its profit-making mines, though the present Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr S.Y. Quraishi, who was then the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of HML, had opposed the proposal. A ministerial committee comprising Mr Dhir Pal, Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu and Mr Risal Singh cleared the proposal to surrender the mines. Now the government, he said, would allot these mines to its “favourites.” He demanded that to get the maximum revenue for the state exchequer, the surrendered mines should be auctioned and not allotted.

Mr Gujjar also alleged that the Chautala government was implicating its opponents in false cases in a bid to gag them. So much so, he said, the ruling party had even put the credibility of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Madhuban, at stake in order to implicate the RPI MLA, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, in a murder case. He said the attempt to use the FLS for “political vendetta” was so blatant that even the Punjab and Haryana High Court had to order the sealing of the laboratory records. He said while the State Vigilance Bureau was issuing notices to political opponents of the ruling INLD, Mr Chautala had done nothing about the affidavit given by his brother, Mr Pratap Singh, regarding his (Mr Chautala) assets.

He alleged that Mr Chautala and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhajan Lal, were hand in glove. “Otherwise, the vigilance notice would have gone to Mr Bhajan Lal and not to me,” he added.

He alleged that the ruling party was eroding the authority of the elected panchayati raj institutions by constituting the gram vikas samitis, which, he said, would be merely another channel of corruption. Mr Gujjar, who said he was totally dissatisfied with the functioning of the Chautala government, did not find any utility of the “Sarkaar Aapke Dwaar” programme because, as he said, work had not started even on 25 per cent of the announcements made by the Chief Minister under this programme.

He also said that Sirsa district was being promoted at the cost of the other areas. In the Rori Assembly constituency, from where the Chief Minister’s son, Mr Abhey Singh, was the MLA, as much as Rs 160 crore had been spent.

The BJP Legislature Party leader said he had met Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Narendra Modi and apprised them of the political situation in Haryana. The party high command, he said, had told him to “wait and see.”

He said he would repeatedly request the high command to withdraw BJP support to the Chautala government in the interest of the party.