Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: Giving a dramatic push to probity in public life, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday sacked his well being minister Dr Vijay Singla and bought him arrested for looking for lower cash for awarding authorities contracts and clearing funds.
Singla was later produced earlier than an area courtroom, which remanded him in three-day police custody. For his half, Singla mentioned, “It is conspiracy to defame the AAP and Bhagwant Mann government.” Both Singla and his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pardeep Kumar have been booked by the police beneath the Prevention of Corruption Act primarily based on a grievance from Rajinder Singh, Superintending Engineer within the Punjab Health Systems Corporation.
The FIR mentioned Singla’s OSD Kumar had demanded that the officer fetch 2% fee for a development contract price Rs 41 crore the minister had already cleared and for a separate fee of Rs 17 crore made to contractors in March. Since the entire quantity concerned was Rs 58 crore, 2% works out to Rs 1.16 crore.
When Rajinder Singh introduced the harassment to Mann’s discover, he was requested to collect proof. The officer then taped a gathering he had with Singla and Kumar, the place they reiterated their demand for bribe and mentioned the lower cash must be paid to his nephew. The officer handed over the explosive tape to the Chief Minister’s Office.
Mann is learnt to have then confronted the minister with the recording and requested if the voice on the tape was his. Singla reportedly replied within the affirmative and was sacked. He is a first-time MLA and minister, as are most ministers within the Punjab ministry.
Mann put out a video message making the announcement. “We found substantial proof of his corruption. I do not care if the opposition wants to use this to hit out at us,” he nonchalently claimed. Mann additionally sought to take the excessive ethical floor saying that is the second time within the nation’s historical past {that a} minister has been sacked by his personal occasion for graft. The first one, he added, was in 2015 when AAP founder and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chucked his personal meals provides minister Asim Ahmed Khan on fees of corruption and handed him over to the CBI for questioning.
Kejriwal, after all, was suitably impressed. “Your motion has introduced tears to my eyes,’’ he informed Mann. But the Opposition mocked Kejriwal for claiming earlier that corruption had been utterly eradicated in Punjab inside simply 10 days of the Mann authorities within the saddle.
Whistleblower’s dramatic grievance
About a month in the past, Rajinder Singh, Superintending Engineer in Punjab Health Systems Corporation, was referred to as by Pardeep Kumar, OSD to Singla (pic), to room quantity 203 of Punjab Bhavan
Singla was in a rush to go away, however informed the officer to totally belief Kumar. “Whatever Kumar says is what I intend to say,” he assured and left
Kumar talked about allotments of development works price L41 crore and a separate Rs 17 crore already paid to contractors in March
2% of the entire Rs 58 crore or Rs 1.16 crore must be paid as bribe, they mentioned
The officer refused and requested that he be despatched again to his mum or dad division. He is because of retire on November 30
