Resignation proves guilt, Narang panel a sham: SAD

› The resignation has proved that the entire process of allocation of sand mines was flawed. All contracts to Congress legislators should be cancelled immediately. BALWINDER SINGH BHUNDER, SAD, Rajya Sabha member

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday said that state power minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s “complicity” in the sand mining scam, in which contracts were allotted to his “minions”, was now “proved beyond doubt” by his resignation from the cabinet.

Demanding registration of a criminal case now against Rana for “causing loss to the state exchequer”, SAD’s Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder said, “The resignation has also proved that the entire process of allocation of sand mines was flawed. All contracts thus allocated to Congress legislators should be cancelled immediately. Action should also be taken against ministers who knew about this crime and kept quiet.”

Bhunder added, “It is also clear that the Congress high command took the step of asking for Rana Gurjit’s resignation after chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh failed to act.”

“Rana Gurjit cannot claim he is resigning on moral grounds. If that was so, he should have resigned when his name surfaced in the sand mining scam in which his cook Amit Bahadur successfully bid for a Rs 26-crore sand mine.”

The Akali veteran further said, “It has also been established that Justice (retd) JS Narang Commission was formed to exonerate Rana Gurjit by giving it specific terms of reference. The commission abysmally failed to do its job. It is now incumbent on the government to ask Justice Narang to refund the entire money spent from the state exchequer on the bogus inquiry done by him.”

Stating that the chain of events proves that Rana bid for sand mines through front companies and that these auctions were also financed by “tainted” contractor Gurinder Singh. “It needs to be investigated why Gurinder, who was arrested in the Rs 1,000-crore irrigation scam, had invested Rs 5 crore to fund the sand mines bagged by Rana’s associates.”