Chandigarh, September 5
The political tit for tat between Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh took a dramatic turn today when the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee released a list of property allegedly owned by the Punjab Chief Minister.
The list of property includes farms in India and abroad, a multistoreyed building and parking lots in the USA, besides investment in transport and a tourism project in India.
Welcoming Mr Badal’s offer to exchange property with him, Capt Amarinder Singh chided him for not knowing the correct name of his (Capt Amarinder) house in Patiala, which he said was Motibagh Palace and not Moti Mahal. On becoming the new “owner” after the exchange of property, Capt Amarinder Singh told the Chief Minister to get the name of the palace right.
In fact, Capt Amarinder Singh gave details of the property of Mr Badal in a letter written to him yesterday. The letter, which was sent at the official address of the Chief Minister, was released to the Press here today.
Interestingly, Capt Amarinder Singh did not give a list of the property owned by him. He has, perhaps, left it to Mr Badal to find out the details.
Capt Amarinder Singh requested Mr Badal to supply the relevant documents relating to his declared and undeclared assets through a confidential letter to enable him (Capt Amarinder) to put his lawyers on the job of exchanging property.
The letter said Mr Badal owned two houses under construction — one in Sector 9 and another in Sector 5 here. It also said that Mr Badal owned a 112 acre farm and a house in Badal village; a 300 acre farm with a 25-bedroom house under construction on it in Sirsa (Haryana); a 350 acre farm in Chuk Badal village in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan; newly purchased 5,000 acres of land in Jodhpur district, a poultry farm and land in Ropar district; a Rs 250 crore five-star tourism project in Gurgaon; and the Faridkot House in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, acquired recently for Rs 40 crore.
The letter also said that Mr Badal had the Orbit Travels transport company, with over 115 buses running on lucrative routes. Besides, he had a 10,000 acre farm in Perth (Australia); an 8,000 acre farm in California in the USA; a multistoreyed building in Manhattan in New York; and two parking lots in New York.
Capt Amarinder Singh also mentioned other investments, which he believed had been made by the Chief Minister’s family in “clubs” in New York and elsewhere.
Capt Amarinder Singh’s letter
in response to an offer made by Mr Badal at a press conference on September 3 to exchange his property with that owned by the PPCC president, who had alleged that Mr Badal had a farm in Australia and other property worth several hundred crores of rupees elsewhere. Mr Badal had stated that he had never been to Australia not to speak of owning a farm there.In the letter, Capt Amarinder Singh offered to accept the property on an “as is where is basis”.
He told Mr Badal that in case a clarification was required in regard to the list of property, he (Capt Amarinder Singh) should be supplied with a corrected list by Mr Badal. He offered to send his representatives to verify the details of the overseas property allegedly owned by Mr Badal.
Capt Amarinder Singh also requested Mr Badal to depute his man to check the “title deed,” etc, of Motibagh Palace.
