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Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 29
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered setting up of a one man judicial commission to probe the allegations of impropriety against Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh in the multi-crore sand mining auctions.
The Tribune had reported on May 25 that employees of Rana Sugars Limited, a firm of Rana Gurjit, had allegedly bagged contracts worth crores in the e-auction of 89 sand and gravel mining sites conducted on May 19 and 20.
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Amit Bahadur, a cook allegedly working with the firm, successfully bid for one of the most expensive sand and gravel mines in the state. He outdid 32 bigwigs to bag a quarry at Saidpur Khurd village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) for a whopping Rs 26.51 crore.
Read: Punjab minister’s cook is Rs 26-cr sand mine owner
The inquiry would be conducted by Justice (Retd) J S Narang and he would submit his report within one month.
The minister has meanwhile offered to resign in order to ensure a free and fair investigation. The chief minister has, however, asked Rana Gurjit to continue till the outcome of the judicial probe.
Asserting his stand of zero tolerance to corruption, the chief minister announced his decision to set up a Judicial Commission after taking suo motu cognisance of media reports charging the minister with acquiring certain mines in the names of his company’s staff.
Though Rana Gurjit has denied any links of his company with the auctions and has categorically stated that his company has no stake in the sand mining business, the Chief Minister decided, in the interest of ethics and propriety, to get the matter probed at the highest level.
There was no question of allowing any deviation from his government’s avowed policy of providing clean governance, said Captain Amarinder, adding that he would take all steps to ensure that there is no violation of the trust reposed by the people of Punjab in his government and the Congress party.
The two-day sand auctions, in which these bids are alleged to have been secured, related to 50 mines and they have already generated a revenue of nearly Rs 300 crores, leading to the highest ever earnings from the mining sector for the state government.
According to a government spokesman another 56 mines would be put to auction on June 11 and the government is expecting to generate another Rs 300 crores from them. It’s worth mentioning that the state government’s revenue from the mine auction last year was merely Rs 40 crores.
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