Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused Chioef Minister Parkash Singh badal for ruining andpoliticising PSPCL and discriminating more than 4 Lakh applicants waiting for tube well connections. Addressing the media, AAP Spokesperson and Convener RTI Wing and Advocate Dinesh Chadha, Co-Convener RTI Wing said that the Badal government has allocated approx. 25,000 out of turn tubewell connections to its cronies, on the recommendations of Akali MLA’s and “Halqa-Incharge’s” under the garb of a discretionary quota of Chairman PSPCL. The said nefarious move of the government is not only violative of the constitution but is a cruel joke with more than 4 lac applicants of the state, who have been waiting for tubewell connections since 1996. Badal in order to please his MLA’s and “Halqa-Incharge’s” and to reap quick cheap political gains, has broken the long pending queue of tubewell connections, by devising an erroneously wrong procedure. As per this backdoor gimmickry, the local MLA recommends a tubewell connection of an applicant to the Deputy Commissioner, who in turn makes the recommendation to SE cum Nodal Officer PSPCL of the district, who sends the case for approval to Chief Engineer (Commercial) PSPCL Patiala.
Misusing self created instructions and guidelines, the Chairman of the PSPCL cum puppet of the Badals accords sanction for a new tubewell connection on the basis of mercy/pity to the applicant.As per verbal orders, each MLA or “Halqa-Incharge” is authorized to recommend 250 new tubewell connections under the discretionary quota of the Chairman PSPCL, throwing to winds all norms, rules and regulations. It is even more astonishing, that the Sukhbir-Majithia brothers in law duo have allotted 1055 and 1461 connections respectively in their constituencies by arm twisting the Chairman PSPCL. While one copy of the sanction letter goes to the SE cum Nodal Officer of the district, the other copy is given to the local Akali MLA or “Halqa-Incharge”, so that they can influence the applicant in their favor by handing it over in person.Playing another cruel joke on the poor farmers, the entire expenditure incurred on installing the tubewell has been passed on to the farmers but the entire mechanism of purchase remains with the PSPCL, which smacks of rampant corruption.It is noteworthy to mention here, that Badal had earlier also broken all rules and regulations to hand over 1.25 lac approved tubewell connections/demand notices to his crony MLA’s and Jathedars, although the applicants had deposited fees decades back for their connections.
This unconstitutional move of the Badal government not only smacks of nepotism, favoritism but is gross discrimination with the poorest of poor 4 lac applicants, who have deposited their requisite fees with the PSPCL for decades. Needless to mention, obtaining a tubewell connection is a lifetime achievement for small and marginal farmers of Punjab.In the same breath AAP takes Congress to task for utterly failing to oppose such a blatant unconstitutional move of the Badals neither in the Vidhan Sabha nor outside, despite having more than 45 MLA’s. Their studied silence once again proves that they are hand in glove with the Akali’s and are playing a friendly match.AAP vehemently condemns this discriminatory, autocratic and blatantly unconstitutional politically motivated decision of the Badal government, to grant illegal tubewell connections to Akali workers, Jathedars etc. on the recommendations of Akali MLA’s and “Halqa-Incharge’s”. It warns the Badal government to immediately scrap the so called discretionary quota of the Chairman PSPCL and urges it to accord precedence to the original 4 lac applicants waiting for their turn since decades.In case the government and the PSPCL do not take immediate corrective measure by scraping the politically motivated chairman’s quota, AAP will be forced to knock the doors of Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court to ensure justice to the discriminated 4 lac tubewell connection applicants of Punjab, waiting for their turn since 20 years.