Chandigarh, May 19, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to explain why he was not proceeding against Congress legislators Madan Lal Jalalpur and Hardyal Kamboj who had been accused of running an illegal distillery and bottling plant besides asking him to come clean on the exact excise loss suffered by the State during the last three years.
In a statement here, senior SAD leader Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said it was shocking that despite public acceptance by Madan Lal Jalalpur that the Congress Sarpanch who was running the illegal distillery was a trusted aide and that the other accused in the case was a confidant of Hardyal Kamboj, no action had been taken in the matter.
“The excise department has also disclosed that the distillery was in operation since one year and that it had ‘manufactured’ spurious liquor worth Rs 100 crore in the last five months alone. This contention not only indicts Jalalpur and Kamboj who were running the show at the local level but also indicates that there was a bigger Godfather who was patronising the entire illegal operation.
The chief minister’s reluctance to go to the bottom of this while showing his weak resolve in tacking bootlegging, also shows him in poor light in his home district as the slow poison was being distributed for consumption in Patiala district”.
Prof Chandumajra also asked the chief minister to come clean on the exact excise loss suffered by the State during the last three years. He said though Capt Amarinder had announced that State excise had grown by an average of 1.6 per cent per year, the government’s own accounts showed that targets had been missed repeatedly.
He said as per the latest media revelations it had now come to light that excise collection had gone down by Rs 1,820 crore in the last eleven months of 2019-20 as compared to the budget estimate of Rs 6,201 crore. “Earlier Cabinet ministers as well as other Congress leaders have pegged the excise loss suffered by the State in the last three years at Rs 3,600 crore.
It is high time you clarify your earlier statement that the State did not suffer any excise loss in the last three year”, Prof Chandumajra told the chief minister.
The SAD leader said the liquor mafia being run by Congressmen in Punjab, had also spread its tentacles in Haryana. He said recently a mafia kingpin from Rajpura had been arrested by the Haryana police on charges of liquor smuggling. “It is well known that distilleries run by Congressmen and their friends continue to evade excise duty.
Congressmen indulged in illegal liquor sales during lockdown due to which there are no takers for liquor from vends now. Despite widespread demand for a high court monitored inquiry into the Rs 5,600 crore liquor scam, the chief minister has not done anything in the matter. This failure to act against the liquor mafia is giving a message to the people that the very top of the pyramid is compromised.
Capt Amarinder should move to dispel this impression by taking action against the liquor mafia by arresting all legislators involved in bootlegging besides recovering their ill gotten wealth and depositing the same into the State treasury”, Prof Chandumajra added.
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