Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday announced that his government would soon get all the cases of alleged corruption and malpractices including the contentious power purchase agreements (PPAs) that took place during the decade-long SAD-BJP regime probed by the vigilance department.
He said the probe would be carried out to fix the responsibility of all those involved in “derailing” the state’s economy by “looting” the public exchequer for their “personal vested interests”.
While addressing the House after tabling of white paper on the power sector (2006-07 to 2020-21) on the concluding day of the two-day special session, Channi reiterated his government’s commitment to “nail all such dishonest leaders of the SAD-BJP government who amassed ill-gotten money through various mafias of sand, transport and drugs.”
He further reiterated his government’s commitment to bring to book all the culprits involved in the sacrilege cases as he said the ongoing investigations in this regard would be certainly taken to the logical end so that all the perpetrators of this heinous crime should be given an exemplary punishment as a deterrent for others. Likewise, the “big sharks” involved in the drug mafia would not be spared at any cost, the chief minister said.
Channi said he was quite hopeful that the special task report on drug cases would be opened on November 18 with the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He assured the people of Punjab that he would leave no stone unturned to break the backbone of the drug mafia and none would be allowed to go scot-free.
Slamming Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, the chief minister accused him of trying to intentionally disturb the special session just to find an excuse to be ousted from the House and “finally, he succeeded when the Speaker was compelled to name him and his party colleagues for the rest of the day”. “Majithia and his partymen didn’t have the courage to face the criticism against Akali Dal’s misdeeds of rampant corruption and nepotism during its misrule of over 10 years,” he alleged.
Earlier, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal took on the previous Akali regime over the issue of PPAs with private companies, accusing it of projecting excess demand for electricity to allow the setting up of private power plants. He alleged that no safeguard was kept in the PPAs for the protection of the interest of the state.
Accusing the previous SAD-BJP regime of “playing the biggest fraud with the people”, Badal demanded a probe by the commission to probe loss caused to the state exchequer through the PPAs. Replying to a query from AAP MLA Aman Arora over the PPA issue, Badal said the power purchase pacts were not being scrapped rather the tariff would be re-determined.
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu lashed out at the previous Akali regime for the “faulty” PPAs. AAP MLA and leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema asked why the state government was not scrapping the PPAs, stating that the consumers could not be given relief in power tariff till these are cancelled.
The House later passed the Punjab Energy Security, Termination of PPAs and Redetermination of Power Tariff Bill, 2021. With the passing of this bill, the PPAs with Nabha Power Limited and Talwandi Sabo Power Limited would be referred to power regulator Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission for re-determination of tariff.
The Assembly also passed the Punjab Renewable Energy Security, Reform, Termination and Re-determination of Power Tariff Bill, 2021.
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