Chandigarh, November 21, 2019 (Yes Punjab News)
Senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab, and Leader of Opposition, Harpal Singh Cheema and president of trade wing of the party, Nina Mittal, have accused the government in the saddle of succumbing to the pressure of mining mafia active in the state, saying that ‘gooda tax’ was being charged without the scantest fear of the law.
Terming the departmental action against the complainant office-bearers of the Mubarikpur Crusher Association opposing the ‘Tax’ as a retaliatory action, alleging that it had been taken under the monstrous pressure of the sand mafia.
In a statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh on Thursday, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the act of sealing the screening plants of the complainants and senior vice-president, Ranjit Singh Teja and vice-president, Vijay Mohan, respectively, of the Crusher Association, by the mining department was nothing but an effort to gag the voices rising against the mining mafia calling the shots in the state, which would not be tolerated at any cost.
Cheema further said that a delegation of AAP law makers and other party leaders would meet the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, on his return from his foreign jaunt and put pressure on him to reign in the mining mafia, saying that if he failed to do so, the party would be left with no choice but to ‘gherao’ him at his residence.
Nina Mittal on the occasion said that the action against the businessmen and office-bearers of the association, who had gone to lodge a complaint with SDM, Derabassi, against the ‘goonda tax’, had left nothing to speculation that the government and the mining lords were hand in golve.
Nina Mittal said that the pressure being build up by the government on the complainant entrepreneurs, who had been raising their voices against the menace, for a ‘handshake’ mining mafia, which was shameful practice on the part of the government.
She said that, instead of protecting the interests of the businessmen and entrepreneurs in the state, who were already battling financial crisis due to the wrong policies of the government, the government was pressuring them for a compromise with the mighty mining mafia.
