Majithia seeks probe into ‘co-op insurance scam’, minister Randhawa rejects charges
Chandigarh Senior Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday demanded a probe into an alleged scam in awarding contract for life insurance cover to cooperation department personnel amid the Covid-19 threat. He said the alleged wrongdoings were committed at the behest of Punjab cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a charge denied by the minister.
Addressing mediapersons, Majithia said rules were ignored to grant the contract to a random company through a single tender. He said Randhawa awarded the contract overriding the recommendations of the bidding committee.
“The allotment of the tender was against the Centre and state government directives to compensate the next of kin of frontline worker losing life in the line of duty during the pandemic,” said Majithia, adding that the Punjab government had issued a letter in this context on May 8, three days before the contract was awarded to a private company, GoDigit.
“Let him (Majithia) say what he wants to. My department has done the entire tendering process as per rules. He is in the habit of ranting allegations against me and all his allegations fall flat,” said Randhawa.
“His department gave a very reasonable premium to insure the staff of state cooperative bank, Milkfed, land mortgage bank, Markfed, and Sugarfed. Interestingly, the minister was not aware of the amount that was given in premium,” the minister said.