NO STAKES IN SAND MINING BIZ: RANA GURJIT

CHANDIGARH : Rejecting media reports, the Punjab irrigation and power minister Rana Gurjit Singh on Thursday said neither he nor his company — Rana Sugars Limited — has any direct or indirect stakes, financial or otherwise, in the sand mining business.

The minister also denied any links of his family members or employees with the sand mining business. The employees in question had left their jobs a long time ago, which can be verified from the company’s records, the minister said.

“The fact that some of his former employees reportedly bid for the mines does not in any way imply that he has interests or stakes in the business. “There are thousands of employees who have worked with me and left from time to time and I cannot be held accountable for what they do after leaving my companies,” he added.

Claiming that his businesses had an annual turnover of more than thousand crores, Rana Gurjit said: “With an already running business in hundreds of crores of rupees, does it make any sense to indulge in a business of a few crores?”