M A I N   N E W S

Amarinder Singh ready for probe
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8
To push Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to the wall on the property issue, President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Capt Amarinder Singh today suggested that both (Capt Amarinder and Mr Badal) should get their assets probed either by the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax or a judicial commission set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In his second letter to Mr Badal today, the PPCC chief today said: “let us submit our respective lists of property, fortified by respective supplements, to the Chief Commissioner of Income tax, to confirm these. Secondly, and even better, would be that both you and I approach the Chief Justice of the court to set up a judicial commission to go into my charges of your accumulation of wealth, vastly disproportionate to your known sources of income.”

The letter, written in response to Mr Badal’s September 6 missive, was released to the press here by Mr Surinder Singla, Chairman of the media committee of the PPCC. Mr Singla said the party high command backed Capt Amarinder Singh’s efforts to “unmask Mr Badal”. He said Mr Badal had the habit of running away from public commitments. But this time the Congress would not allow him to do so. Earlier, Mr Badal had run away from a public debate on various issues with Capt Amarinder Singh at a public platform on the plea that the PPCC chief was a junior leader. “That was a lame excuse,” Mr Singla said.

The commission “will make the job of voters easy in the Assembly elections. Once the commission gives its decision, people of the state will be able to decide who is right and who not. It will enable them to vote accordingly,” today’s letter said.

Thanking Mr Badal for offering to gift overseas property to him, the PPCC chief said: “I would only retain the property that you (Mr Badal) have inherited or made through bona fide business and distribute the rest among the 13.5 lakh families who live below the poverty line in the state.”

“If you continue to deny ownership of your overseas and benami Indian property, it would be easy for the judicial commission to requisition the services of the CBI to perform the task of identification, in which task we will certainly help.”

Some additions in the earlier list of properties of Mr Badal have been made by Capt Amarinder Singh in the letter. The value of the 5-star tourist project in Gurgaon near the Delhi border owned by the Badal family has now been pegged at Rs 350 crore instead of Rs 250 crore. Making a serious allegation, Capt Amarinder Singh, has said as the Gurgaon land had been gifted by the late Devi Lal, Mr Badal had placed the outstanding issues with Haryana in the cold storage. Capt Amarinder Singh has alleged that Mr Badal had also a house in Sector 2 and another in Sector 32 in Chandigarh, besides a workshop and a bungalow at Killianwali village.

Attacking Mr Badal’s claim that his property was due to the hard labour by his ancestors, Mr Singla said it would be proper to compare Mr Badal’s property with his brothers, who must have got equal share.

Today, Capt Amarinder Singh did not even spare Mr Badal’s “miniscule” group. Obviously angered by the highly abusive tone of Mr Badal’s September 6 letter addressed to him, Capt Amarinder Singh said: “Your letter drafted by a group of myopic, below average bureaucrats, fortified by your legal luminary, was nothing more than a shoddily drafted document stuffed with bombastic prose, comprising medieval English and modern day gutter slang which would make Shakespeare blush. The letter itself is anything, a sad reflection on the state of affairs of today’s governance as these are your key advisers. Little wonder why Punjab is today suffering on all fronts. The letter with an overdose of out-of- context phraseology is a reflection of your bankruptcy of thought and covertly indicative of your character”.

Cong charge sheet against Badal govt on Sept 12
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8
The Punjab Congress, which has upped the ante against the BJP-SAD government, will finalise its “charge sheet” against the Badal government and its manifesto for the coming poll at the Coordination Committee meeting being held at the AICC office here on September 12.

The “charge sheet,” which will detail “corruption” and “failures” of the Badal government assumes special significance in view of the recent verbal duel between the Punjab Congress chief, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal. Mr Badal had strongly reacted to Capt Amarinder Singh’s charges against him of amassing huge wealth and property in different parts of the country.

The Coordination Committee meeting, convened by AICC treasurer Motilal Vora who is in charge of Punjab, will finetune the Congress strategy for the Assembly elections in the state.

Having launched its campaign by holding rallies in various zones of Punjab, the Congress now plans to impart momentum to its poll campaign by holding rallies in each of the Assembly constituencies.

Party leaders feel that the “charge sheet” against the Badal government will provide the much-needed sting to the Congress attack on the ruling regime. The election manifesto, on the other hand, will reflect the commitments of the Congress to the people of the state. Sources said the manifesto, which is being given a final shape by a committee comprising Ms Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, would not be short in promises and would be a match to the “doles” successively dished out by the Badal government.

Apart from promising abolition of octroi, the Congress is also likely to favour giving power to farmers virtually free. Sources said though the charge sheet and the manifesto would be finalised on September 12, these would be released only after ‘shradhs’ ended.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr Vora said after the last of the zonal rallies was held at Samana on September 15, the 103-member campaign committee of the state Congress would meet at Chandigarh. The campaign committee would chalk out a programme of holding rallies in each of the 117 Assembly constituencies in the state.

The party’s zonal rally at Malaut on September 11 would be addressed by senior Congress leader Madhav Rao Scindia.

The meeting of the Coordination Committee, which comprises senior leaders from the state and those dealing with Punjab at the AICC, is being held after almost a month.

Mr Vora said the “charge sheet” and manifesto would also be discussed with a senior party leader, Mr Manmohan Singh, who heads the party’s special committee on Punjab.