Cong leaders accuse Haryana minister Saini of corruption

Congress leaders Karan Singh Dalal and Kuldeep Sharma on Tuesday accused senior leaders of the ruling party of taking bribe from mining contractors.

Talking to mediapersons at Karnal, Dalal alleged that contractors, who were giving mining contracts in Karnal and Yamunanagar, did not pay any instalment or penalty to the government due to which a loss of ₹110 crore was caused to the state government. Instead they allegedly had to pay bribe to the ministers to continue the mining operations even in the Karnal since 2015.

Dalal alleged that senior leaders of the ruling party and an OSD of chief minister were involved in “mining scam”.

“When we tried to raise the issue of corruption in the state assembly, the ruling party brought a privilege motion against us,” he added. Congress MLA Kuldeep Sharma alleged that mining mafias in the state were very active in Karnal region. The Cong leaders also brought to the conference a contractor, Sohan Lal, who alleged that he paid ₹10 lakh as bribe to the minister of state for mines and geology Nayab Saini, to allow the mining operations in Karnal.

NAYAB SAINI REFUTES ALLEGATIONS

Talking to Hindustan Times, minister of state Nayab Saini refuted the allegations of bribe and said that he will file a defamation case against Congress leaders and the mining contractor for false allegations.

"The contractor was hand-inglove with another contractor and they were allotted two blocks of Sand in Karnal, but they tried to shut one block deliberately to increase rates of sand and started operations from one block,” said Saini.

“But we imposed the penalty as per the rule and made it clear that they will have to forfeit the security as they did not start mining in the other block,” he said adding, “That is why the contractor is levelling false allegation against me.”