Punjab Congress Vice President and Chief Spokesperson Sunil Jakhar today alleged that the Punjab government was trying to hush up the matter of multi-crore pesticide scam by deflecting the attention from the main issue to the corruption charges against the former Director Agriculture Mangal Singh. This, he said, was being done to save the the big fish as the pesticides purchases of Oberon brand of pesticide,which according to Mangal Singh`s own statement were directed and guided from the Chief Minister’s and Agriculture Minister’s office directly.r Sunil Jakhar made this allegation after visiting the office of AIG Sh Hardyal Singh Mann, at State Crime Police Station,Bureau of Investigation, Mohali. He was there to find out about the progress in the case filed by Special Secretary Agriculture ,regarding fraud in the puchse of Rs 33 crores worth of Oberon brand of pesticide in 2015. He was accompanied by MLAs Sh. Balbir Sidhu,Parminder Singh Pinki and Gurkirat Singh Kotli The PCC Chief Spokesperson said, the government has filed a challan yesterday against the former director agriculture in a seprate corruption case registered on September 15, 2005 for accepting bribe of Rs 8.5 Lakh rupees from a pesticide dealer.
But what happened to the case registered on October 6, 2015 related to the purchase of Oberon pesticide worth 33 crores of rupees.The PCC vice president said this case was registered after a departmental enquiry headed by Special Secretary Agriculture Suresh Kumar had said that a scam had taken place in the purchase of the Oberon which led to the damage of cotton crop in 8.5 lakh acres in Malwa region and hit about 3 lakh families.He said, this was being clearly done to deflect the attention from the main issue of the multi-crore purchase of Oberon. He pointed out, the former agriculture director was authorised to make purchases up to Rs ten lakhs only, while in this case purchases were made to the tune of 33 crores of rupees.Clearly, Mr Jakhar pointed out, the directions came from the top like the Chief Minister’s office or the Agriculture minister. He said, a case was registered on October 6, 2015 under sections 420, 409 and 120-B. But, he added, no action has been taken in this regard so far. The intention, he remarked, is clear to save the big fish and the real culprits.Mr Jakhar also endorsed and welcomed the initiative of the PCC president Capt Amarinder Singh about the mass resignations by all the MLAs and MPs in the event of the Supreme Court of India deciding against Punjab in the matter of SYL. He said, he fully supported the decision and was ready for any sacrifice.