Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, September 29: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today demanded judicial enquiry into the Rs 33 crore pesticides purchase scandal in view of the involvement of some officials in the chief minister’s office and the blame game between Agriculture Minister Tota Singh and officiating Director in his department Mangal Singh Sandhu.
“It is a very serious matter as it has now surfaced in this blame game that the grave crisis in which the cotton farmers have landed, several of whom have committed suicide, was partly man-made due to the purchase of sub-standard pesticides. How come that the file relating to the purchase of pesticides moved so fast with the minister concerned send it back with his approval the same day? He said going by the reports, the entire process to purchase pesticides was completed within a few days, the efficiency for which this government was not otherwise associated”, he said.
Manpreet referred to the blame game between Tota Singh and Sandhu in which the office of the chief minister has also been dragged. He said the director was authorized to make direct purchase only for Rs 10 lakh but in this case, the order amounted to Rs 33 crore. The file was moved by the official concerned in the directorate on May 13 and was cleared by the minister on May 18. What was all the more interesting that it was later in June that the attack on cotton crop by white fly was noticed.
Her said entire record relating to purchase of pesticides should be made public at this stage itself besides ordering judicial inquiry as the loss has been too much and just one official alone could not take a decision of this magnitude for which he was not even authorized. He demanded that the name of the officer in the Chief Minister’s Office should also come out in the interest of the transparent functioning at the highest level in the state
