Chandigarh: Congress Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa said Monday the fact that he highlights the failings of the Congress government in Punjab should not be construed as an act of rebellion against the party.
Bajwa has once again taken on Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, this time over the alleged multi-crore post-matric scholarship scam, and asked why he did not want an independent probe.
“The scholarship scheme is a brainchild of UPA-I, and it was to benefit Dalit students. After eight years, for the first time, Dalits voted for the Congress in the last elections. And this is how we reward them? By eating into the scholarship money meant for their children?” Bajwa told ThePrint.
“It is not just that the CM wants to save the skin of his cabinet minister who has been indicted in the scam. This scam is obviously not limited to the minister only. There are other big people involved in the scam,” he said.
This is the second time in the past one month that Bajwa, a former Punjab Congress chief, has exchanged barbs with Amarinder — after the hooch tragedy earlier this month that killed over 120 people in three districts bordering Pakistan.
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The alleged scam
Last week, Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot was indicted by his department’s secretary for causing the state a loss of Rs 63.9 crore in the distribution of scholarships to private technical colleges.
Kirpa Shankar Saroj, posted as additional chief secretary, submitted a 54-page special report to Amarinder, who ordered a verification probe by the chief secretary Saturday. The CM said the probe would be detailed and thorough, as there was a dispute between the minister and the additional chief secretary.
The previous day, Bajwa had demanded an inquiry by a high court judge, adding that Dharamsot should resign for the duration of the investigation. “The scam is not limited either to Dharamsot or to Rs 64 crore or Rs 300 crore. It is a scam worth Rs 800-900 crore,” he had alleged in his Twitter post.
“Last time, when I had demanded a CBI probe into the hooch tragedy, I was told I am getting central agencies to conduct probes in Punjab. So, this time, I have demanded a probe by a high court judge,” he said.
My statement on the PMS-SC Scholarship Scam. pic.twitter.com/oruJreXWHS
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) August 28, 2020
Bajwa said in the tweet that he would also write to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, apprising her of the sensitivity of this matter.
Amarinder’s retort
Amarinder had retorted to Bajwa’s tweet Saturday, reminding him of the 2004 bitumen scam. Bajwa, the PWD minister in Amarinder’s first term as CM (2002-07), was allegedly involved in the scam.
The CM said in a statement that he could have “sacked” Bajwa then under pressure from the opposition. “Bajwa is behaving like an opposition leader whose only agenda is to attack the government on any and every issue,” he said.
Bajwa responded Sunday, tweeting that it was wrong to compare the scholarship scam with the bitumen scam.
“There is no comparison whatsoever between the two situations. The bitumen scam covered the engineering wings of many departments like the PWD, Mandi Board, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation etc. and had come to light on the basis of a diary recovered by an income tax officer. The scam came to light in 2004, the period it covered was of the previous SAD regime (1997-2002) and did not involve the Congress government,” he wrote.
My statement on CM’s recent comments. pic.twitter.com/8hgJ2yoySw
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) August 30, 2020
Not ready to blink, Amarinder Monday rejected Bajwa’s contention that there was no comparison, asserting: “Corruption is corruption, in any and every form. The bitumen scam allegations against Bajwa were as serious as those being levelled now in the scholarship scam.”
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