The scam-ridden sitting Congress MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal sans ideologies, agenda and picks his family first. This was stated by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s State President, Sanjay Tandon at a press conference held at party office, Kamlam, Sector 33 today. While addressing the media-persons here today, Tandon released a charge-sheet prepared by the party which highlights all the scams done by the Congress government and clearly shows the involvement of Bansal. At the conference, Sanjay Tandon was accompanied by Vice President, Raghubir Lal Arora, Spokespersons, Kailash Chand Jain and Gurpreet Singh Dhillon.
While raising the questions over Bansal’s candidature in the LS-Elections 2014, Tandon said, “If the BJP comes into the power then inquiry in all these scams will be done properly. Despite having various evidences against Bansal, CBI gave him a clean chit in a rail gate scam and he got his name cleared from many other scams by exerting pressure of his influential positions. Bansal may have saved himself from the court of law but his fate will be decided in the Court of people. The voters of Chandigarh will take a moral high ground and root out the corrupt”.
Details of the Charge-sheet:
1. Railgate Scam - It is unfortunate that Chandigarh remained in the limelight in the country due to the corruption of its elected Member of Parliament Pawan Kumar Bansal. His nephew Vijya Singla was caught while taking bribe of Rs 90 lakh. He had done a deal to promote Mahesh Kumar in the Railways for which the total amount Rs 12 crore cash-for-post had to be given. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged Bansal’s nephew, Vijay Singla with graft under sections 120B of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Bansal had to resign from the Union Railway Minister in the aftermath of the case involving his nephew, who is alleged to have been operating from his official residence.
2. Booth allotment Scam involving Rs 500 crore - The UT booth allotment scam had unfolded in February 2011 and had indicted Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal and influential people. Giving a favour, Congress allotted booths to selected persons and ignored the rights of the genuine allotters. The financial dimensions of the fraudulent allotments ran into crores of rupees that included money being paid to politicians, police officials and officers of the Estate Office.
3. Paver block scam of Rs 100 crore - Chandigarh is a well-planned city and it was decided that the city will have less concrete structure to save the green cover. But from the last ten years, during the Congress regime in the Municipal Corporation, the work started on installing paver blocks in the whole city. Paver blocks are very costly as compared to the ceramic tiles. The work of installation was assigned to the close circle of Congress MP.
4. More than Rs 20 crore teachers’ recruitment scam - Irregularities were found in recruiting 536 teachers in the Education Board of the city. Ignoring the meritorious applications, the preference was given to the close associates of Congress leaders and heads of the concerned departments.
5. CTU Drivers’ recruitment scam - There were indiscretions in the recruitment of drivers in the department of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU). Only those people were given jobs that had some kind of connection with the Congress leaders and other high-ups.
6. Sports Equipment Scam - While using their connections with the local congressmen, the Sports department had procured highly- priced equipments for their gyms on the pattern of the scam of Commonwealth Games.
7. Duplicate Ration card scam - With the help of employees of Food and Supply Department, many middlemen made hundreds of duplicate Ration cards and earned in lakhs. It was a double blow to the poor man who had to shell out hefty amount and such cards were not recognized in the records of the government.
8. Rs 5 crore Shed allotment scam - Those shed which were made for the commission agents in the sector 26, got damaged in June 2007 due to the negligence of Chandigarh administration. These sheds were allotted to 59 commission agents. While reconstructing the place, 10 extra sheds were built. This scam was given shape by Pawan Kumar Bansal’s favourite Councilor and then chairman of the Market Committee, Devinder Babla.
9. Garbage Treatment Plant Scam - There were irregularities in setting up the garbage treatment plant with the investment of crores of Rupees by the Municipal Corporation ruled by the Congress government. The mayor and committee members who had given permission to set up the plant did not take any action. The stinking smell can be felt in the area due to the plant which is harmful to the environment too.
10. Rehabilitation scam - The poor people of Chandigarh’s various labour colonies were cheated and lost their valuable lifetime incomes in the name of rehabilitation. On the other side, Chandigarh administration faced the huge revenue loss because of the involvement of many officials with the land-Mafia. Hundreds of residents of Colony No 5 were displaced and are still looking for a shelter.
11.Rs 20 crore Atta-distribution scam - Under the central government welfare scheme of distribution of atta (flour) for the above poverty line people, many officials of the food and supply department of the city gave a shape to Rs 22 crore scam in a year. The officials misplaced 22 lakh bags of 10 kg atta.
12.CITCO scam - The department of Chandigarh Industrial Tourism Development Corporation is full of scams. The CITCO employees misuse the hospitality department to please many senior officials. Due to this nobody takes action against the employees of CITCO for carrying out irregularities.
13. Police Recruitment Scam - As many as 2475 irregularities were found in the recruitment of Chandigarh Police which clearly indicated that the officers responsible for the recruitment were partial.
14. Cement scam - There were many irregularities found in the working of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh but somehow the officers had deliberately ignored the same. There is no record of the quantity of cement issued to the contractors. Even when a truck loaded with the cement was caught at night time, the case was hushed up by suspending a JE and some employees of the contractor. 15. Firemen Recruitment scam - Like many other departments, fire department also had its due share in the irregularities while recruiting firemen. In the exams conducted for the purpose many dummy candidates were fielded and thus deserving candidates were left out and favoured candidates were called for interview.
16. CTU scam - There is eerie silence of the incumbent MP over the issue in which 139 out of 144 candidates were selected from a preferred area. Only one candidate was selected from Chandigarh and two from Punjab.