Chandigarh, September 22, 2019 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said human lives meant little to the Congress government and it was deliberately delaying inquiries into the most heinous cases of criminal neglect by denying justice to the victims of last year’s Amritsar Dussehra tragedy as well as this month’s Batala firecracker factory blast.
In a statement here, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said a CBI inquiry should be held to pin point Congress leaders and officials responsible for acts of negligence which led to the gruesome tragedies.
He said the inquiry should investigate why the inquiries ordered by the Congress government were delayed and kept away from the public and should take action against guilty Congress leaders and government officials. “FIRs should be registered against all the guilty leaders and officials and they should be awarded exemplary punishment”.
Stating that treating the loss of human lives and failure to fix accountability for the same was not tolerable in any democracy, Mr Majithia said the truth was being suppressed and Congress leaders and workers responsible for criminal negligence were being sheltered.
“Such a callous attitude towards giving justice to the common man has put chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s credibility on the line, especially since he had ordered time bound inquiries into the cases”.
Giving details, Mr Majithia said in the case of the Amritsar Dussehra tragedy, the chief minister had announced that the probe report would be made public within four weeks. “It is nearly one year and the victim families have now announced to come on the roads as the probe report has not been released till now”.
He said Congress councilor Mithu Madaan and the Sidhu couple of Navjot Sidhu and Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu were directly responsible for the death of 59 persons who were mowed down by a speeding train when effigies were being burnt near the railway track at Joda Phatak in Amritsar.
The Akali leader said Navjot Sidhu, who was then a minister in the State cabinet, had promised jobs to the victim families, but this promise was also not kept.
Mr Majithia said in another shocking incident the ADC (General) of Gurdaspur who was given the responsibility of probing the September 4 blast in a firecracker factory operating in a residential area in Batala, had proceeded on ex-India leave without submitting the inquiry report.
He said even in this case, in which 23 people lost their lives, the chief minister had made an announcement that the probe report would be completed in four weeks. “Now the district administration is stating that it will take months.
Obviously it is a crude attempt to shelter the accused Congressmen as well as government officials who let a firecracker factory operate in a residential area since 2017”.
The SAD leader said the Congress government had been treating all victims of tragic incidents resulting out of gross negligence in a similar fashion since the last two and half years.
He said in case of the collapse of the plastic manufacturing factory in Ludhiana in which 16 persons, including nine fire fighters lost their lives; the inquiry report had also not been made public.
“Even in this case CM Capt Amarinder Singh announced a probe into the incident in which a large amount of chemical had been stored in a building whose height was increased illegally”. He said no official had been indicted in the case or dismissed till now.
Mr Majithia demanded that inquiry reports with regard to all ten cases of negligence, including the burning of fifty shops at Anandpur Sahib, hosiery, garment factory and road fires in Ludhiana, blasts in Amritsar and Tarn Taran and cracker factory blast in 2017 be placed in public domain immediately.
“If this is not done, the SAD will launch a campaign along with victim families to ensure justice is done to them and they get promised government jobs and compensation”, he added.
