Punjab Chief Minister Says AAP, Akali Dal “Lying Blatantly” On Funding Issue
Manjil Das, INN/Chennai
Twitter-@SGiggle29 @Infodeaofficial
On Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh stated that private electrical firms had donated money to the Congress that had nothing to do with power purchase agreements. He also criticised the AAP and Shiromani Akali Dal for “lying shamelessly” about the matter.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had accused the Punjab government of not cancelling power purchase agreements (PPA) inked during the previous SAD-BJP administration and alleged the present government had taken “funds” from three power plant firms.
A CBI inquiry was demanded by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) over alleged receipt of money by Congress.
Singh claimed that, unlike AAP and SAD’s “illegal payments” made by different shell firms to the Akalis, Congress money had nothing to do with the PPAs signed by the Akalis.
A specific number of power firms made political donations in 2009 and 2014, not to the Punjab Congress but to the All-India Congress Committee, with no relation to the state’s current administration, he claimed.
So that the people of Punjab might know the reality behind their claims and counterclaims, Mr. Singh dared both parties to reveal their political funding for the previous 10 years so that they could be held accountable.
As part of an official statement, he said: “Let the truth come out, and let the people determine who is or has been defrauding them with false charges and accusations.”
Sehgal accused the SAD and AAP of promoting “a carnage of falsehoods” in a desperate attempt to “mislead” the public ahead of upcoming provincial polls in 2019.
As the agreements were signed by the last SAD-BJP administration, Amarinder Singh’s government could not revoke them without incurring hefty fines, he added.
In a statement, Mr. Singh said his administration was examining legal options to counteract the “ill-effects” of the PPAs without further burdening the state’s exchequer, which the SAD, together with its BJP partners, had “milked dry” to fill their own pockets.
The SAD-led Badal government had received more than 100 crores in political money and declared just 13 crore, with the remainder going into their own pockets, “said Mr.
According to Mr. Singh, AAP’s donations during the 2014 elections were already being scrutinised by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), unlike private power firms’ contributions to AICC.
Four checks worth 50 lakh were reportedly donated to the AAP during the 2014 Delhi assembly elections, according to recent media reports, the statement claimed.
A lawsuit for forgery and fraud was filed against the four firms last year, the newspaper reported.
SAD was busy generating law and order difficulties in Punjab amid the Covid epidemic, Singh said, while his administration was working on ways to solve the challenges handed to the people of Punjab by SAD.
In Punjab, the AAP also appears to be in “complete collaboration” by refusing to challenge the contentious and “anti-people” actions of the previous SAD-BJP administration, he said.
