Scam tainted and mafia controlled Punjab government must go : Manpreet

Chandigarh, October 5: The scam tainted and mafia controlled anti-people Akali Dal-BJP government in Punjab has lost its legitimacy to govern and it must be thrown out. Giving a call to this effect to the people in the state, People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal said scams were tumbling out one after the other beginning with the pesticide scam that had ruined the farm economy. He said this scam should not be assessed only in the context of Rs 33 crore purchase of substandard pesticides by the state agriculture department but in terms of loss running into thousands of crores and loss of invaluable lives with the farmers committing suicides as the calamity was man made resulting from spurious pesticides supplied by non-existing companies. He demanded that the investigation that had started with the arrest of agriculture director Mangal Singh Sandhu must be taken to the logical conclusion in view of the name of Agriculture Minister Tota Singh and a powerful officer in the office of the Chief Minister surfacing in this scandal. He said closely following it was the fake pesticide scandal involving officials in the agriculture department that had been busted in Phillaur area in Doaba. He also referred to Rs 97 crore embezzlement in the purchase of ration and other material by the jail department. He said then there was the organized drug mafia supplying narcotics to the prisoners. He said either there was connivance of political leadership in these scams or the writ of the government had ceased to run in the administration which had been thoroughly corrupted over the years. He said Punjab had earlier become notorious all over the country for the activities of the drug and sand mafia being patronized by the ruling class and now scams were coming out one after the other that was a very serious matter. He reiterated that the compensation to the farmers must be assessed in terms of total loss and to enable them to cultivate next crop rather than resorting to the bureaucratic approach.