Bajwa asks Sukhbir, Joshi to clear the air
Wednesday, 11/06/2014
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday called upon deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, who also holds the home portfolio, to make his position clear on the charge of police patronage to illegal sand mining in the state, levelled by local bodies minister Anil Joshi.
“It is not the Opposition that is charging the police with providing patronage to illegal sand mining that has been going on in the state for the past several years. The prices of sand and gravel have multiplied a hundred times. Sand, which used to be almost freely available, is now being sold in the state at the rate of cement. The police department is with the deputy CM. Coming from the BJP, now he cannot take refuge under the argument of it being an allegation levelled by the Opposition. He owes an explanation to the people or should say that Joshi, his cabinet colleague, is lying,” said Bajwa.
The state Congress chief said the menace of drug addiction and the skyrocketing sand and gravel prices had emerged as the two biggest issues during the election campaign in Punjab and both these illegal activities could not proliferate without political patronage.
Bajwa added that the police were the common thread in both cases. With Joshi coming out into the open to defend his party, the cat is now out of the bag, he said, adding that the BJP, stung by the humiliating defeat of party stalwart Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, mainly because of these two factors, had now hit back at the deputy CM.
