Punjab RERA appointments kick up row
Chandigarh, December 23
As Satya Gopal, a former Additional Chief Secretary of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, today joined as Chairman of the Punjab Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), the Punjab Congress launched a scathing attack on the AAP for appointing outsiders on important positions in the authority.
Bhagwant Mann has sublet governance: Sukhbir Badal
- Sukhbir Badal said it was shocking that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had completely sublet governance to the AAP high command in Delhi.
- “Earlier, the AAP high command masterminded the Rs 500-cr excise scam by handing over the liquor trade in Punjab to its Delhi favourites,” said Sukhbir
- “Now, it is taking control of the real estate in Punjab and has appointed Kejriwal’s blue-eyed boy Satya Gopal as Chairman of RERA,” added the SAD chief
On Thursday, the state government appointed Gopal as chairman and a retired IRS officer, Rakesh Goyal, as Chairman and Member, respectively, of RERA.
Reacting to the appointments, PCC chief Raja Warring said, “While the Aam Aadmi Party is acting like East India Company, its supremo Arvind Kejriwal is treating Punjab as an occupied colony and rehabilitating his favourite non-Punjabis in the state.”
He said, “I wonder why the AAP has not been able to find any Punjabi worthy and competent to hold important positions in the government.”
He pointed out that earlier the AAP nominated mostly non-Punjabis and non-politicians to the Rajya Sabha and now it had started the process to ‘infiltrate’ outsiders into the state administration.
“Didn’t you find any Punjabi worth the chairmanship or membership of RERA that you had to bring in people from outside?” Warring asked Kejriwal while feeling sorry for prominent and competent people in the Punjab AAP, who have not only been ignored but humiliated.
Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira said, “Bhagwant Mann has proved to be worse CM than Parkash Singh Badala and Capt Amarinder Singh, who are accused of having played a fixed match. At least, they did not import non-Punjabis to rule over Punjab.”
Expressing strong condemnation over the appointment of the retired Delhi bureaucrats in RERA, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday said he doubted the intention of the Aam Aadmi Party behind these appointments.
Bajwa said both appointees were close confidants of Kejriwal. The LoP, in a statement, said the real estate was considered to be one of the most lucrative ventures.
“I have serious doubts that the senior leadership of AAP sitting in Delhi has an eye on the profitable businesses of Punjab so that they could amass party funds, which is required for the party expansion in other states. Previously, the party had chosen two big businessmen from Punjab for the Rajya Sabha. Reasons for their nominations to the RS are very well known to the Punjabis,” Bajwa added.
